Time Turned Back
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: Harry was sick of it all. So when he catches Draco in Snape's private stores, he decides that he isn't going to stand back and let Draco lie about it. During the fight, a rare and unusual herb is hit, and Harry gets splashed with the concoction...and wakes up in his parent's fourth year! Determined not to be used again, he befriends a younger Snape and changes his name.
1. Chapter 1

Harry hated Hogwarts. Well, that wasn't entirely true. He held no ill will for the castle, just the people inside of it.

It was his fourth year, and already he just knew if he didn't do something then it would turn out just as crappy as the last three. He didn't _want_ to fight for his life again.

However there was nothing he could do. If he were entered as he feared, then he had no doubt Dumbledore would force him to compete, probably citing that he would lose his magic. And magic was the only defense he had against Vernon and Petunia.

Harry sighed. He didn't want to be put into another death-defying situation, but he also couldn't leave.

His feet caused him to wander to the area where Snape had his private potion ingredients. There was a loud crash, and Harry blinked. He saw Malfoy leave the storage area, and he smirked when he saw Harry.

Harry could see what Malfoy planned when he saw him. He would blame any theft on Harry.

He had enough. Harry drew out his wand and started hexing the blond ferret. Malfoy yelped as one of the hexes split a jar he was holding wide open. The liquid inside turned red hot and splashed all over Harry as the idiot Slytherin threw it at him to protect himself.

Harry cried out in surprise and expected pain as it hit him, drenching him completely. His beloved owl, Hedwig appeared just as the ingredient reacted to the spell and the two vanished without a trace.

* * *

Harry woke up in the infirmary, and the first thing he saw was Hedwig, who hooted at him reproachfully.

"I'm fine girl. Just a little dazed...where are my glasses?"

"Your glasses are right here. What in Merlin's name were you doing covered in that muck? It took me an hour to find something to dissolve it from you and your owl that wouldn't cause a major reaction!" scolded Madam Pomphrey.

"It wasn't intentional. I was having a fight with this jerk and he threw it at me as a distraction. The jar broke and I blacked out. Where am I anyway?" he asked. He knew perfectly well where he was, but one look at the fussing Mediwitch and he knew that he wasn't in his own time.

Pomphrey looked several decades too young for starters, and the plaque she had jokingly put on his usual bed was missing. Not to mention it looked closer to the start of the school year when it had been closer to October when he had stumbled across that idiot Malfoy.

All in all that pointed to time travel, though he had no idea what year or day it was.

Dumbledore came in, again looking decades younger than he remembered. That simply proved he wasn't in his own time, because the man didn't automatically go to his curse scar and actually looked him in the eye.

"So our mystery arrival is awake. Do you have a name dear boy?"

Harry thought fast. No way was he letting this senile old goat know that he was fully aware of where he was or that he was from the future. That was just a recipe for disaster!

"Gabriel Barton, sir," he said thinking fast. Gabriel was his favorite character from a TV series which was the only thing that featured magic that Petunia would dare allow in the house...mostly because it involved two nonmagical brothers who _hunted_ people like Harry for a living. (Dudley loved the show because of the violence and bloody nature of it, while Harry enjoyed it because it was so interesting.)

And Clint Barton (aka Hawkeye) was his favorite Avenger. He had read and later bought every single comic book he could get his hands on that featured the archer shortly after he finally had a chance third year. Fortunately it was all in his bag that he carried everywhere with him since Ginny's break-in of his trunk second year.

He had bought a specially expanded bag third year so that he would never have to worry about some crazed stalker getting into the things he actually cared about again...and he had once caught Colin sneaking out of his dorm room with something that looked suspiciously like one of his dirty shirts.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.

"Gabriel Barton? I'm afraid I don't recognize that name."

"I'm a half-blood who's been home schooled sir. I had an...argument...with another person who lived in the area that lead to me getting drenched in some potion ingredient I don't know the name of. He thought I would let him pin the blame for his thieving habits so I 'corrected' him of that mistake. Next thing I know I wake up in here," said Harry.

It was a half-truth, but not a complete lie either.

"Well, it seems that we'll need the name of your parents or guardians so we can contact them."

"My guardians are not very friendly towards outsiders, let alone owls...they barely tolerate my familiar in the house. And my parents were killed when I was a baby. I live in a remote area that isn't exactly conductive towards port keys, brooms or the Knight bus. We barely have floo and my guardians are too cheap to even consider wasting floo powder just to find me."

"Surely they couldn't be that heartless," said Pomphrey.

"I was barely able to get any magical schooling at all. They kept hiring cheap tutors for defense, and my potions work is spotty at best."

"Well I see no reason why a home schooled lad such as yourself couldn't attend Hogwarts for the year...at least until we get a hold of your guardians. There are certain procedures in place for misplaced youths," said Dumbledore jovially.

Harry acted grateful, but inside he was annoyed.

Perhaps now he could drop Divination like he always wanted.

* * *

Harry patiently waited to be 'sorted' by the hat a second time, and despite learning the year (he had arrived during the same time his parents had been in fourth year, to his surprise) he had no desire to be a Gryffindor twice. He had argued against Slytherin years ago because of Ron's words, but being honest with himself he preferred the quiet dark dungeon to the loud and brash atmosphere of the lion's den.

It was long past time he quit hiding as the Golden Gryff and acted like the patient serpent he was.

Besides, being around his parents and keeping the truth a secret would have been too hard for his tastes. Better to be enemies than try to befriend them and accidentally reveal their future.

"_Slytherin!"_ said the hat loudly in Dumbledore's quiet office. Seeing the somewhat disappointed look shot his way, Harry found he could care less.

He had discovered, to his open shock, that the potions ingredient had changed his hair color from a raven's black to a more cinnamon brown. His eyes remained the same, but he had gained a bit of a tan and most of his scars, barring the basilisk's bite and the lightning one on his forehead, had simply faded away into nothing.

He looked nothing like a clone of James Potter with green eyes, which to be honest was an open relief. The last thing he wanted to explain was why he looked like someone he knew to be an only child.

* * *

Horace Slughorn was the head of Slytherin during this time, and as a new Snake he took 'Gabriel' to Diagon for supplies.

His wand had been missing when he was found, it had dropped when he had gotten hit with the ingredient, so he would have to get an entirely new one.

Gabriel (he had decided to slip into this new personal to avoid confusion in his own mind) spent the bare minimum for supplies, deciding for a custom wand instead of Ollivander's premade ones.

"Welcome!" said the shopkeeper.

"Hello. I've unfortunately had the bad luck of having my wand lost during a fight and I'm in need of a replacement. So how does this all work?"

"Used to premade ones, eh?"

"Only had the one from Ollivander, and it never really suited me that well."

"Things work a bit different for a custom. I can see by your robes you're a Slytherin?"

"The hat just put me there. I was previously home-schooled," said Gabriel.

"In that case... for ten galleons extra I'll keep from adding the required trace on your wand," said the wand maker with a wink. Ollivander couldn't get away with that option, but a custom wand couldn't have spells already on the core or the wood until _after_ it was made. Otherwise it would mess with the wand itself.

Hence why he could skirt the law by making it optional.

"Deal. Let's get started so I know how much I'm paying."

Gabriel left with a brand new wand, one that didn't have any spells on it and was very unusual. Considering what he spent for it, it had better be a powerhouse compared to Ollivander's work.

* * *

Gabriel's first encounter with the Marauders left him sorely disappointed. Every time he asked about Lily or James he had always been told that they were good people and that James had a group of friends called the Marauders.

He hadn't known just how much sugar had been coating that load of bullshit.

James Potter was an outright bully and Sirius wasn't much better. Peter was a sycophant who followed their coat tails and Remus, while not being an enabler, also didn't try to curtail their more vicious pranks.

And Lily... well, Gabriel was left disenchanted by his mother after a few days.

Lily Evans wasn't a more tolerable Hermione, no she was Miss Popularity because of her looks and the fact she dismissed James out of hand. Yes, she was smart and surprisingly good at Charms and more than passable at potions, but compared to Hermione there was no real comparison.

Watching his own mother put down a Slytherin girl a year above her had been rather eye-opening. And watching a young Severus Snape had been rather heartbreaking.

Snape wasn't his mother's friend...he was a follower who was so desperate for attention from his crush that he couldn't see her faults. It didn't help that they lived right next to each other or that Lily had taken pity on him when she found out that he also had magic and no friends.

Gabriel suffered one prank from the Marauders, a rather nasty one that he barely managed to save his beloved owl from, before he decided to do something about their behavior.

The teachers might ignore the outright bullying, but that didn't mean he had to put up with it.

And he started with Snape.

* * *

Severus didn't know what to think of the sudden transfer. Just because he shared a hall with the boy didn't mean they would be instant friends. In fact Gabriel seemed to be an outsider who was trying not to join any cliques just yet.

Whereas Severus was a known outcast because of the fact he was the most frequent target of the Marauders.

Severus found Gabriel reading a new potions text rather intently before throwing up his hands in frustration.

"This makes absolutely no sense! Dicing the mandrake root would work better than trying to julienne the bloody thing! Who wrote this nonsense?" he said in frustration.

Curious, Snape looked at the text. He was surprised to find that Gabriel was correct...dicing wouldn't make an effective potion at all, though cutting it into really thin slices might work better. He didn't know what he meant by julienne the root though.

Seeing him reading the book, Gabriel raised an eyebrow.

"You understand potions?" he asked.

"It's my best subject. What did you mean by julienne the root?"

Gabriel brought out a simple cutting board and a sharp knife from his potions kit. He proceeded to cut a rather useless ingredient and cut it into thin strips no bigger than a needle with expert skill. Snape was fascinated.

"I took cooking classes before I came here, and I tend to equate potions with cooking, since it requires equal skill to pull off," he shrugged.

"So this is what you meant?"

Gabriel nodded.

"This text makes no sense whatsoever, or whoever wrote it should relearn their art," said Gabriel.

Snape looked at the publisher. The man wasn't a well known potionsmaster, and his work had been laughed at before.

"This was written by someone who barely understands potions, let alone cooking," said Snape.

"Strange, this is the same text my teacher made me study from..." seeing Snape's look he quickly added, "I come from a remote magical village and they don't exactly update their book collection that often."

Seeing a chance to make a friend, since Gabriel hadn't been openly intimidated by the Marauders and hadn't been there that long, Snape asked if he could partner with him during potions. He wanted to see Gabriel's skills for himself.

Gabriel grinned at him, and agreed.

Snape and Gabriel quickly bonded over potions, though it wasn't uncommon for them to get into an open debate over whether cooking was just as detail oriented to potions.

Later that month, Snape would be surprised to discover that the Marauders had only hit him twice instead of the ten pranks they usually put him through each month for daring to be anywhere near Lily Evans.

* * *

Lily seemed a mite annoyed that Snape had made an actual friend who didn't seem to fall head over heels with her like every other straight boy in the school her age. Or that Snape had slowly started to drift away from her and towards Gabriel.

And when confronted about it, Snape had seemed surprised that he had been enjoying the company of Gabriel more than he had being around Lily.

At least around Gabriel he wasn't in danger of being hexed, cursed or jinxed by James and Sirius.


	2. Chapter 2

**I forgot to add this last chapter, but I would like to credit Lupine Horror for coming up with the title for this fic. I had mentioned the idea offhand to him and asked what he would call it. Hence why the story is called _Time Turned Back_.**

* * *

"Sev, can you pass me the bloodroot?" asked Gabriel.

"I've told you, quit calling me Sev," said Snape. It was Lily's pet nickname for him, and he wasn't letting Gabriel, who was admittedly his best friend, call him by the same nickname his former crush had given him.

"Fine. How about Banner? Or maybe Hulk?"

Snape rolled his eyes. Gabriel had introduced him to his collection and while Snape had enjoyed the series as a nice change of pace, he wasn't as interested in the series as Gabriel was.

Even if he did like the fact that Gabe was at least comparing him to one of the smartest characters in the series. He did not have an anger management problem like Dr. Banner.

Gabe pouted.

"How about McCoy?"

"Not. I am not blue nor am I a furry," said Snape.

"Raven?"

"Not a female or into meditation," said Snape.

Gabe thought a moment.

"How about... Castiel?"

"Castiel?"

"It's a name of an angel under the ranks of Micheal the arch angel," said Gabe.

"...That's a little better. But no."

"Fury?" said Gabe.

Snape paused in his cutting and looked at him.

"Fury is acceptable. What about you?"

"I am so Loki," said Gabe immediately.

"Why Loki?"

"Because according to _Supernatural,_ the arch angel Gabriel hid under the guise of a pagan trickster god known as Loki up until his death at the hands of Lucifer," said Gabe immediately. He had the entire book series right up until the latest one when he had somehow gotten sent to the past on him as well.

He had yet to share those with Snape though. He wasn't sure how his friend would react to Gabe reading a series about two brothers who killed people like them.

"Besides... Loki was an outcast in Asgard because he was a mage instead of a warrior like Thor in the Marvel universe. And if he were here he would be a Slytherin easily."

"Point. And we're pretty much outcasts because of the Marauders and the fact we prefer to 'cook' (he said this with sarcasm) to casting spells all the time."

"Speaking of the Marauders... I've been making a list of people we might be able to recruit to teach them a lesson, or at least a group to counter their malicious pranks," said Gabe.

"Count me in," said Snape in a heartbeat.

"I knew you would be interested. Anyway here's the list of people they've targeted repeated since I've come here. Think you could narrow down those who would be willing to work with outcast Slytherins?"

Snape took the list while Gabriel cut the ingredients. They had a simple arrangement...Gabriel would do the prep work, which even Snape admitted he was much better at than him, while Snape did the actual stirring.

Gabriel was a good cook, but he was somewhat impatient. Snape was great at potions, but his attention to the prep work wasn't nearly as good as Gabriel. Between the two of them they had been getting the highest marks in the class, and Slughorn was considering putting them in the advanced ones as well if this kept up.

"Count Longbottom, Abbot and Black out. Regulus might dislike his brother, but unless you do something to impress his mother he won't help out," said Snape.

"Damn. Wait, what would impress his mother?"

"Getting into a really high rank in that new group called the Death Eaters maybe?" said Snape.

Gabriel made a face.

"Death Eaters? Those hypocrites?" said Gabe grimacing.

"What?"

"Their leader, Voldemort, is a damn hypocrite. He's not a pureblood like he claims, but a half blood who happens to be good at word games," said Gabriel.

"How so?"

Gabriel took a sheet of parchment and scrawled '_I Am Lord Voldemort'_ on it...then he waved his wand and it reformed into a name.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle?" read Snape.

"He's got this trophy in the school, one for special services. When I looked him up I found he had been here the same time as Hagrid the gamekeeper, who didn't have anything good to say about the bloke. Apparently, he framed Hagrid for something he might have had a hand in or knew about that got a girl killed. When I reformed his name as a joke, I found that it spelled this. It's an anagram," said Gabriel.

"How do you know he's a half-blood though?"

"Looked him up through the goblins. I sent them two galleons and they sent me back this. Look at his parentage."

"Merope Gaunt and Tom Riddle," read Snape.

"Merope is, according to school records, a squib. The Gaunt family are supposedly descended from Slytherin himself, but there's no record of it. And Tom Riddle isn't even a wizard...according to the goblins there's no record of him anywhere...but there was a record of a Tom Riddle in the area the Gaunt family lived in."

"The son of a squib and a muggle? And he's claiming pure blood supremacy?" said Snape with an eyebrow raised.

"Really strange don't you think? The last known record of a Tom Marvolo Riddle was in Borgin's and Burke's...seven months later he vanishes and this Dark Lord suddenly starts up," said Gabriel.

"What are you two idiots doing?" asked Narcissa snidely. While Gabriel had always been formally polite with her and her sister, she didn't particularly like him that much because he was a half-blood.

"Talking about how this Voldemort character is a total hypocrite," said Gabriel.

"What?"

"He's all for pure blood power, but he's really the half-blood son of a squib and some muggle lord from the area his mother lived in," said Gabriel.

"You got proof?"

"I have some proof, but no concrete evidence. However it all leads to the same conclusion...Voldemort is a half-blood that's really named Tom Marvolo Riddle," said Gabriel.

He neglected to mention that Voldemort had told him all of this in the future. When he was twelve. Right before he killed the basilisk.

And eventually if someone confronted Voldemort about the truth he would slip up and word would spread.

The less support he had now meant fewer people Gabriel would have to deal with later.

Narcissa took the copies and would later send it to her aunt.

Walpurga was a pure blood extremist. No way would she allow any of her house to follow a liar who claimed pure blood status but was in reality the half-blood son of a squib and a muggle.

He merely gave her the direction to look in. If word spread through her about Voldemort's ancestry...well, he might have a bigger fan base later.

* * *

"Are you sure this will work?" asked Regulus.

Walpurga Black had given him permission to befriend Gabriel Barton. She was impressed that the boy had exposed the liar known as Voldemort before her son could be swept up in his fake ancestry.

So Regulus joined the group that Gabe had jokingly called the Avengers, to Snape's annoyance. Still, he was the best planner Snape had ever seen. Besides...the whole point of Gabriel's "Avengers" was to counter the Marauders and give them a rival who wouldn't stoop to their level.

And getting even with James was something Snape could heartily agree on.

"I got the recipe from a pair of twin brothers who are just as big a pranksters as the Marauders, but have never crossed the line over to bullying. And this is the time-delayed variant of it."

"Whoever made this recipe is a potions genius," said Snape.

"Their names are Gred and Forge...or to be more precise Fred and George. They're so close that they drive people batty finishing each other's sentences."

"So how long does this last?" asked Regulus.

"It lasts for four hours, and they won't be harmed by it. Unlike the Marauders I don't tolerate bullies and I certainly won't let them get away with the crap they've been pulling. Got the potion Fury?"

"Right here Loki. You laced it with a charm, right Stark?"

Regulus had enjoyed the comics Gabriel let him read. He especially liked Iron Man, so Gabriel had told him he could be Stark.

"Ready and waiting."

Gabriel downed the hour long gender-switching charm and took the cupcakes. The canary creams were his first act of harmless payback against James and Sirius.

"Damn... Loki is definitely the perfect name for you Gabe," said Regulus.

Gabriel made for one disturbingly hot woman.

"Cupcakes?" she asked. Snape handed them over.

"Time to give the Marauders a dose of their own medicine."

* * *

Sirius looked up to find a rather hot Hufflepuff girl bearing baked goods.

"Sirius? The girls of Hufflepuff made you and the other boys a treat," she said with a wink.

Sirius grinned. He took the cupcakes with thanks. She gave him another wink before walking away with a sway to her hips.

Later, Sirius shared three of the cupcakes with his friends, having already devoured two of them.

James certainly enjoyed it...though Remus noticed a weird flavor to it.

It wasn't until halfway through Transfiguration that the potion took full effect.

They were practicing a switching charm when all of a sudden Sirius sprouted feathers... soon after James, Remus and Peter all followed suit.

"What is the meaning of this?" demanded McGonagall.

"Payback for the prank they pulled on the Hufflepuff girls two days ago," said Gabriel flatly.

"What prank?" demanded Lily.

"These four thought it would be _hilarious_ to spike the girl's drinks so that their hair turned clashing colors like orange and purple," said Gabriel in disgust.

"That was you?!" shrieked one of the girls, Bones, if Gabriel remembered right.

"We thought it would be appropriate for them to see what it feels like to be pranked by their victims. The potion we laced the cupcakes with will only last four hours...unless they took more than one."

"Sirius...he said he ate two," said Frank Longbottom.

"So he'll be stuck like that for eight hours," said Gabriel shrugging.

"This...prank of yours. It's completely harmless?" asked McGongall.

"They'll come out of it unharmed, if a bit embarrassed. Maybe Sirius will learn not to think of his smaller head next time a girl comes up with baked goods," snorted Gabriel.

"Beware the Greek bearing gifts," quoted Snape. It was something Gabriel had mentioned when he came up with this prank.

Gabriel and Snape got detention for the prank, but the damage was done.

James and Sirius were pissed about being hit with a taste of their own medicine. Remus was curious as to who had given Sirius the cupcakes.

However after learning that Slytherins had openly come to the defense of people outside their house, Gabriel found more volunteers in joining his group.

So he came up with a study session open to all houses.

To Snape's surprise, several people who usually mocked him during one of the Marauder's pranks started coming...and were actually civil to him.

Gabriel figured out why without a second thought.

"It's pretty damn obvious that James and his groupies are the 'popular' clique for the boys, while Lily and her group lead the girl half. And you have to remember that they often subject others to their cruel pranks. It's easier to join in with their mocking than it is to stand up to a bully," said Gabriel.

Snape thought that over, and realized he had a point. It would be far too easy to give in and join such pranks than it would be to stand up to James.

And there wasn't enough collective backbone in the damn school for anyone to stand forward and say 'no' to their pranks. At least until Gabriel came anyway.

* * *

Everything for the first two meetings went great!

The third one, not so much.

Lily was inexplicably attracted to one Gabriel Barton. She had no interest in blood purity, but she did like his intelligence. And since she was the undisputed prettiest girl in the school under fifteen, she knew he wouldn't say no to her advances.

All the better to snag James later, if he believed he had a credible rival since Severus had for some reason quit being around her.

She put her best outfit on, walked into the study group and was pleased to find all eyes on her. Except for one...Barton.

Gabriel ignored her completely, so she politely attracted his attention. Severus was watching her with wide, shocked eyes.

"Yes Ms. Evans?" he said calmly, not even turning around.

Suddenly the door slammed open revealing a very angry James Potter. Gabriel didn't need to turn around to know what was going on.

Lily clearly believed she could seduce him to make James jealous, and it had worked. Too well in fact.

Gabriel turned around, saw what his _mother_ was wearing, and then at his rather hormonal father looking ready to hex him if he accepted the offer.

Gabriel had to wonder just how high his future/present teachers had to have been if the stories they always told him of his parents were this off base. Then again he always thought they had been sugar-coating those tales from the start.

"Let me guess. You came in here hoping to snag me as a boyfriend?" he asked of Lily, raising an eyebrow. Seeing her startled, yet pleased look he knew he had hit that nail on the head.

"And you came here because you had heard from one of your little gang that Lily was now interested in me, which gave you all the reason to try and challenge me for the top dog position among our peers," he said to James. James growled, but never denied it. His hormones were entirely ruling him at this point.

Severus watched his best friend carefully. This could make or break him in their house, depending on how he handled matters.

Gabriel snorted.

"Right, let's get one thing straight Ms. Evans. I never have, or ever will, have any interest in you romantically or otherwise. I prefer that the people I date have more personality beyond being the popular girl in school and frankly I would sooner date one of the Bones sisters than I would you at this point. They at least know how to deal with social situations appropriately and don't go flouting their figures off like some peasant girl. And as for you, Mr. Potter, I would suggest you take a moment to cool your head before your smaller head gets you into trouble. I have no interest with you or that gang of yours outside of trying to reign in your bullying habits. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to my Transfiguration homework," said Gabriel calmly.

Silence reigned in the room. Professor Flitwick looked between Lily and James. Clearly Gabriel had known this was coming and had prepared that speech beforehand, and he applauded the use of calm, rational thought over trying to use his ahem, 'second head'.

Lily reacted first, as she 'hmphed' at Gabriel and waltzed out like she owned the place. James followed soon after.

The entire room burst into quiet discussion over what had happened.

Gabriel had challenged James, unofficially of course but still an open challenge, and had come out on top. It was unheard of that a _Slytherin_ managed to one-up a Gryffindor without actual spells being involved.

If Gabriel wasn't already the most popular boy in Slytherin for uncovering Voldemort's true ancestry and exposing him for the fraud he was (not to mention openly pranking the Marauders), then this would definitely secure that spot.

The fact he had also turned down Lily's rather obvious offer to date her, despite being _the_ most good looking girl in their year and a few years above them in favor of a pureblood family was another point in his favor. Clearly he prefer brains over beauty.

Severus shook his head. He could care less for pureblood politics and games. He would stick to his potions thank you very much. At least Gabriel never cared for blood purity and when he had carefully mentioned his own status the boy had grinned and said "Well at least we have yet another thing in common."


	3. Chapter 3

Severus was not looking forward to Christmas. It had nothing to do with the fact that the season was overly festive, or that he had no reason to actually _want_ to go home with his father being very abusive.

No, he wasn't looking forward to the season for one simple reason.

He was terrified Gabriel would be able to contact his family and leave Hogwarts.

That is until Gabriel all but crashed into the first couch he could find shortly after the sign-up sheet went up for those staying.

"I am so glad that I'm staying here. I've heard that Hogwarts has the best feasts over the holidays!"

Severus blinked, not daring to hope.

"You're not going home?"

"I live right smack in the middle of a magical dead-zone, and so far Dumbledore hasn't found a way to get through the shield that allows us to use magic inside without it going out of whack. And since my relatives aren't exactly fond of my existence because I'm the heir of the family and their son isn't, well, I haven't been trying that hard to get in contact with them," admitted Gabriel.

Gabriel had expanded on his 'back story', claiming he was the heir to a pure blood family, but forced to live with one of the branch members after his parents death. The reason why he wasn't on record in the Ministry was because his parents had legally changed their name so that fools like Voldemort wouldn't try to either kill them off or steal their gold.

Considering the hornet's nest Gabriel had stirred up by telling everyone the truth (causing a bit of backlash among the Death Eater ranks) it was better for all involved that he didn't leave Hogwarts just yet.

Gabriel was already arranging things with the goblins so that _no one_ would be able to find his guardians. In exchange for knowledge of which magical ventures had become very successful in the future, they would help him hide from Dumbledore and the Ministry about what he really was.

By the end of the year he would receive a 'missive' from the Ministry informing him that his 'guardians' were killed in a raid by Voldemort in retaliation, though they had taken out the one responsible in the process. They were even going to make a fake village for him to be from, one that will sink into the ocean. With how wide the waters of Earth were, it was highly unlikely anyone would realize the truth...especially since it was going to be located over the deepest trench in the ocean.

And thanks to the blood test Gabriel had done when McGonagall had dropped him off at Gringotts shortly after his arrival, he could legally use one of the older vaults without alerting the Potters of his existence. At least not right away.

The goblin in charge of the Potter account had warned him about a family registry that updated automatically. If Charlus or James ever looked at it they would be aware that he was in fact a Potter, which could be disastrous for him because of how badly he tended to outclass James. Gabriel had bribed the goblin very well not to alert Charles or James Potter to the fact the registry had been changed the next time either showed up.

Now he just had to arrange a series of sleepovers with some of his classmates to avoid having to deal with having to locate a new home, and he would be set.

And if he played things right, he would be able to drag Snape with him. He had heard rumors that Snape's dad was an abusive drunk, though he had yet to confirm which half he had gotten his magic from.

Gabriel didn't miss the look of relief on Snape's face. The poor guy was one of the many outcasts in the school, and he had the bad luck of attracting the attention of the worst bully Gabriel had ever met barring Dudley. It had tempered down quite a bit since he started hanging around Gabriel and avoided Lily, but he was still their favorite punching bag.

The other outcasts were waiting to see if Gabriel would be staying around for another year before they flocked to him. He was the only Slytherin in the school who generally didn't have another agenda for befriending what the other students considered the rejects.

Gabriel was a former outcast. He knew what it was like to be ignored and pushed around just because you didn't fit in.

"Which reminds me... I heard from a little owl that someone is getting a new book for Christmas."

Snape looked at him dryly.

"Just what sort of book are we talking about here?"

"One that's not even out yet. Trust me, you'll love it."

* * *

Snape was awoken Christmas morning by an overly chipper and very hyper Gabriel. He glared at his best friend.

"Exactly how much chocolate have you had?" he asked with a growl.

"I ate your half too. Sorry," said Gabriel, clearly not sorry in the least.

Then again, Snape wasn't a big fan of frogs to begin with, he just enjoyed collecting the cards on famous potion masters.

Snape realized that no, Gabriel wasn't going to let him sleep in no matter what he did, so he reluctantly got up.

"Merry Christmas!" he said, handing his friend a large package.

Snape grumbled, but it was half-hearted at best. Ripping off the wrappings, his eyes doubled in size from shock.

"Gabriel, this is..."

"I knew you didn't have the latest copy and that Slughorn is tired of writing a note so you can get it out of the Restricted Section, so I owled ordered the next updated version and only had to pay twenty galleons extra to get a prerelease. It's not scheduled to be out for another two months at least," said Gabriel cheerfully.

Snape noticed something sticking out of the pages, and when he opened it up he found an odd sort of bookmark...made out of frog cards. Blinking, he looked at the cards themselves and realized they were all the ones he had trouble collecting.

"I have weird luck with the frog cards," explained Gabriel.

Every time he wanted to get a card, he just bought seven frogs. At the very last one would be the card he needed or wanted to collect.

Something Ron took full advantage of.

Snape felt a little guilty that he had only gotten Gabriel a few new comics. It had been difficult to find and owl order them from a muggleborn retailer, but when Gabriel saw them his face lit up.

"Cool. Never read DC before," he said cheerfully.

"DC?"

"DC comics. Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Constantine. Marvel and DC have always had something of a rivalry, but I've always enjoyed Hawkeye more than I have Batman."

Snape didn't know what to say to that. So he didn't say anything at all.

Seeing the look on Snape's eyes about the fact he had gotten a much more expensive gift, Gabriel sighed.

"If you're upset about the book, don't be. I had a friend who was always so jealous about the fact I had way more gold than his family, despite the fact that my parents died and I would give all that money away just to see them alive. I have no use for it, and I can't really access most of it until I reach seventeen, so I have no real issue with spending gold on people I consider my best friends."

Snape's mouth went dry.

"You consider me your best friend?"

Gabriel quirked a grin at him.

"If I didn't, then I wouldn't show off my cooking skills. Besides, only real friends would tell someone that their singing in the shower was so off-key that it was making their ears almost bleed from how bad it is," said Gabriel.

Snape couldn't help the laugh that burst out after that remark. Gabriel used to sing horribly in the showers, and it wasn't until Snape hexed him and then played back a magical recording of his voice that he finally stopped.

Feeling the knot in his chest go away with the knowledge that Gabriel considered him his best friend, Snape finally enjoyed Christmas properly...after he pelted said hyper idiot with all the wrapping paper upon discovering the source of his current state...he had eaten every piece of chocolate in the common room.

* * *

James Potter was sulking. Lily and Sirius had gone home for the holidays.

Sirius usually stayed but after the day Gabriel revealed Voldemort was a fraud and a liar, his mother suddenly wasn't so interested in trying to force her first born to be a perfect pure blood. In fact, Sirius was going home because Walpurga Black had told him flat out that either he came home now or they were going to make Regulus the heir and kick him out of the family entirely.

For all his bluster, Sirius had no desire to be kicked out nameless. He still hadn't convinced Charlus that he wasn't his mother's son, as their last meeting had not been very flattering for Sirius.

How was he to have known that one of their prank victims had been at the house and had brought her father with her? Or that she would tell her father about what they had done barely a week before the year had ended?

To make matters worse, the bane of his existence, Gabriel Barton, was staying behind as well.

James didn't like Gabriel. It had less to do with the fact Lily was openly interested in him (though he would admit that was also part of the reason he hated him), and more to do with his eyes.

There was something about Gabriel Barton that terrified him. Every time he met with the boy's eyes he felt as though Gabriel was silently judging him...and that he was disappointed by something.

And that bothered James quite a bit, because for some bizarre reason, he wanted to make Gabriel proud of him and he had no idea why. Why did that half-blooded Slytherin make him feel so ashamed of his pranks?

They were all in good fun, weren't they?

* * *

Remus was confused. And he fully blamed the most mysterious Slytherin in school.

Barton had sent him a Christmas present, and when he had opened it he had nearly gone into a full panic.

It was a book about werewolves. How did Barton know?! He had never smelled the guy anywhere near him during the full moon, and he mostly kept away from the Marauders.

Then Remus had dared to open the cover, and a letter had fallen out.

_'Dear Lupin_

_I know we're not exactly on speaking terms, let alone friends. However I happened to notice your...condition...and felt that you might want to read this. I have an uncle who's a werewolf and I get along just fine with him._

_So long as you don't try to eat any of the other students, I'll just pretend you have a...furry...condition that only crops up once a month. Some of the information inside this book might help you with your furry problem. There's nothing wrong with being a werewolf, it's how you deal with it that matters._

_Barton."_

Remus had since read some of the book, and it had explained quite a bit about werewolves...some of it he would have loved to have known years ago. Like the fact cats would automatically hate him on sight, or that certain herbs could ease the pain of transformation if taken in a tea.

He had also found a few odd tea-bag like items in another envelope that he had Madam Pomphrey check out. It was the same mixture found in the book.

His next transformation was in three days. He would have to see if this tea really would ease the pain. And possibly ask Barton why he had sent the book and the herbs.

Why would a Slytherin care about a Gryffindor werewolf?

* * *

Christmas was considered an overall success. James had taken Gabriel's hyper ribbing with grace, though they had gotten into a snow ball fight later that James won because he had better aim. Apparently while Gabriel could catch anything thrown at him his throwing skills left much to be desired.

James was just glad Gabriel wasn't on the Slytherin team. If he could catch a snowball without fail, how would he be on a broom?

While they had a temporary truce, Remus finally managed to get Gabriel alone long enough to ask about the book he had given him.

"My uncle once said that he would have had a much easier time during his teenage years if he had that book. Apparently it was written by werewolves for other werewolves. I just had to find a pack that believed me when I told them it was for someone who would put it to use. When they heard you were one of the victims of Greyback, they finally sent the book over. The herbs were a bigger pain to find," said Gabriel honestly.

"Why do you care? You're a Slytherin!"

"And you're a Gryffindor. I can't stand bullies, but I hate seeing people suffer even more. Once I realized what your condition was I had to do something, even if it meant revealing that I knew. Just because we're not exactly on speaking terms doesn't mean I don't have a heart Lupin."

Gabriel had seen the book in Remus' office third year, and he had been curious about the title. Remus had humored him and let him read it, though at the time he had thought it was so Remus could have a better understanding of such an unpleasant medical condition and how to hunt werewolves.

Upon learning that Remus was in fact a werewolf, it had made a _lot_ more sense as to why he had it on his shelf.

Remus had, before they had left the school, openly told him that he wished he had that book back when he was still a student. It would have made the pain much more bearable. And kept him from making a few avoidable mistakes.

It was because of him that Gabriel had known which Pack to contact for a copy...even if it meant exposing the fact he was well aware of Remus' condition and who had given it him. Apparently he had impressed them due to the fact he was asking on behalf of a werewolf he wasn't friends with.

They had to split apart when James was about to come around the corner, and Remus made an excuse about asking Gabriel about some homework he had been having trouble with.

He didn't want to tell James about the fact Barton not only knew about his condition, but that he honestly didn't care.


	4. Chapter 4

Gabriel was in full-blown panic mode. And Snape was openly amused by this.

It was no secret, really, that Gabriel was very popular among the students for being genuinely nice, despite being a Slytherin. Or that he was very good looking, from an established pure blood family or that he was very mysterious.

All of that culminated into one thing that Gabriel absolutely _hated_.

Valentine's Day.

At least Lockhart wasn't around to bring those damn singing dwarves into this mess. Having a burly dwarf tackle you to sing some horribly off-key poem had been mortifying enough the first time.

Which lead to this.

"Wow, I doubt even _Potter_ got this many," said Malfoy openly amused.

Lucius disliked James, and James hated him in return. It was like Gabriel and Draco all over again, only this time there was at least an established reason why the blond creep hated his birth father.

Apparently they had gone to the same magical tutors and James had done something to get Lucius in serious trouble, something that had gotten him a rather painful punishment...despite the truth coming out a month later. Lucius had never forgiven James, even though he had been forced to apologize. Mostly because he had known that James hadn't been sincere with the apology in the least.

Instant feud between James Potter and Lucius Malfoy.

Snape snorted in amusement, mostly because he agreed completely.

"Right... Help me sort out this mess so I can give an appropriate response...and Snape you're on potion patrol."

"Huh?"

"Look for potioned chocolates," clarified Gabriel.

"Ah," said Snape. It made sense to have someone double check for a chocolate laced with a potion before having any. Especially with how popular Gabriel was.

Gabriel went to work writing a polite, if rather firm thank you note to each girl who had sent him a valentine. He wasn't going to be rude, but he also wasn't going to give them false hope either.

Though he paused when he found one from Lily Evans. Shuddering in disgust, he wrote a friendly, if rather pointed thank you restating his stance on dating her.

Not a chance in hell.

He was rather horrified when Snape tested the chocolate she had made and found it was laced with a minor love potion. Low grade but still somewhat effective.

Once all the laced chocolates were discovered and disposed of, Gabriel had the elves deliver each thank you note to the girls. Regulus shook his head at the fact he had bothered to write a thank you note to the girls at all.

He soon revised his opinion of such a foolish idea when he realized how effective it was in getting the girl's attention. Every single female who had sent Gabriel chocolate (laced or not) that had gotten a hand-written thank you note was staring at him with open interest in their eyes.

If and when Gabriel finally went looking for a girl, he would have no shortage of volunteers.

* * *

James was annoyed. Not only were nearly _every_ girl in Gryffindor talking about how much of a romantic Gabriel Barton was for writing an actual thank you for their hard work, but he had also found that Lily had sent him chocolate as well.

Listening to the girls during breakfast, he was irritated to learn that every single girl in their year had sent him a valentine or chocolate and had gotten a hand written thank you in return. Those who had decided to wait to deliver it in person would leave with a massive blush as Gabriel thanked them openly.

Why did the girls flock to him? Sure, he was a decent looking bloke and from a long line of pure bloods, but he was a full pure blood and the most handsome one in Gryffindor next to Sirius. Why didn't the girls send him chocolates like they had Gabriel?

"What's eating you?" asked Sirius.

Something had happened during Christmas break, though Sirius refused to talk about it. Whatever it was, it hadn't done anything to Sirius that James could tell.

"Barton."

"Ah," said Sirius diplomatically.

Sirius was aware that Barton had somehow gotten under James' skin, though he at least didn't actively try to piss him off. There was something about him that just drew you to him though.

However there was something else he knew about Barton that James didn't. Something he had been made to keep a secret until Regulus brought Gabriel to the house once the year was over.

Gabriel had made no bones about the fact he was hoping to continue avoiding his 'guardians' until he graduated. Sirius wouldn't be surprised if an 'accident' or an 'attack' happened before the year was over killing them off.

Since he wasn't exactly a fan of Sirius, it made more sense for Regulus to help keep Gabriel from these so-called relatives by offering a place to stay for a month. It wasn't like their house was wanting for space.

He did have to wonder though...just why was Gabriel lying about his heritage?

* * *

"So you told your mom about me needing a place to crash for the summer and she offered to let me come and visit for a while?" asked Gabriel.

"Apparently you _really_ impressed her by exposing Riddle. You'd still need to get your guardian's permission for it though."

"...Any chance Snape could join us? I've heard things about his dad that don't exactly inspire the warm and fuzzy feelings if you catch my drift," said Gabriel.

"Is his dad a pure blood?" asked Regulus.

"He won't say. I'm still trying to figure out which one of his parents was magical," said Gabriel.

"Ah. Same as you then?" said Regulus tactfully.

"Yup."

"If he's from an established line, then I might be able to get him in too," said Regulus.

"Prince," said Snape, having overheard the conversation.

"Hmm?"

"My mother is from the Prince line," said Snape.

"So your full name is Severus Snape-Prince?" said Gabriel, trying and succeeding in not laughing.

"I would prefer to be Severus Prince, but since my mother was killed I have been forced to go by my father's last name," said Snape in disgust.

Regulus looked thoughtful.

"Exactly how much does your father hate magic?"

"He can't stand the fact I know how to cook and openly throws beer bottles at me. What the hell do you think?" said Snape.

"I might be able to wrangle an extra invite if I claim you're there to help us with potions. Sirius is horrible at that subject," said Regulus.

Gabriel and Snape snorted in unison. Horrible didn't _begin_ to describe Sirius' inability to boil water. There was a reason why Gabriel began each lesson with putting rocks around their table with runes centered around keeping liquids from hitting them.

He had made a small fortune among the other students by selling the rocks and giving them the pattern so that they could avoid being hit with yet another potion's disaster courtesy of Sirius Black.

He was currently working on a talisman that would protect the wearer from most of the low-level spells geared towards harm, like the leg-locker jinx.

* * *

A month passed, and Regulus had not only managed to get an extra invitation for Snape, but also a list of runes from his father that would help Gabriel make the talismans. Apparently Orion Black had specialized in Runes when he was a student, and he approved of Gabriel's work ethic.

Once he had made a rough necklace and had it approved by the Professor, he had a rather large boom in sales from the other students, particularly among his fellow Slytherins.

His next project was to make something the Quidditch team could wear on their uniform to keep the players safe and make it easier for them.

His memories of the first three years of being a seeker vivid on his mind.

"Hey Barton! Some of the guys are going to have a pick-up game of Quidditch. You interested?" called out one of the Lestrange brothers.

"Only if I get to be seeker. My aim is horrible with a Quaffle and I don't have the patience to be a Keeper," he called back.

"With how fast you found the snitch last time the team played, there's no way we're going to pass up you being seeker," laughed Lucius.

It was somewhat hard to believe that these same people would have become heartless Death Eaters who wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

Revealing Riddle's true heritage had tempered their bad habits, but it was still there, just waiting to show itself.

Gabriel could only hope that he could change things enough that some of the tragedies he knew of would never come to pass.

* * *

Gabriel borrowed a broom from one of the Slytherin players, mostly because he had a broken arm and Gabriel had promised that once he had that protection talisman for the team he would get one free of charge.

He had given the same offer to the rest, and they had agreed to his terms. Letting him borrow their brooms until he could get a replacement for the one he had left behind by his sudden appearance was a small price to pay for having a charm that would keep them safe and lower the amount of sun in their eyes.

Gabriel shot off like a rocket, and whooped in joy.

He had been land-bound for far too long.

Seeing James on the other end of the pitch, he realized that this was going to be an unofficial snakes versus lions game. To be fair, some of the Slytherin team had asked to join in.

Once the four balls were released, Gabriel lazily looked for the snitch. Seeing Sirius about to aim at Lucius with a bludger, he smirked and did a Wronski Feint on him, to the shock of those watching. Sirius cursed and narrowly avoided the collision with the ground.

Gabriel snickered.

Lucius looked at him wide-eyed in open shock.

"How..."

"Did I forget to mention I've been playing seeker for years?" he said innocently.

Hearing Sirius curse even more at hearing that, Gabriel looked around, occasionally doing one insane stunt after the next to annoy the other team. It was clear from the look on his face that this was all in good fun for him, he didn't care either way who won the game.

The he saw something out of the corner of his eyes that had him pushing the broom to the limit, and it wasn't the snitch.

He saw Barty Crouch Jr., a fellow Slytherin, aiming his bat at just the right angle to hit Sirius from behind. From the height they were at it would easily knock Sirius out cold if he were really lucky, or put him in enough pain that he might fall from his broom. Either way, Gabriel wasn't going to let Crouch almost commit accidental murder.

Crouch hit the bludger. Sirius turned just in time to get hit in the side and see it coming, but had no time to react. He cried out in pain and his hands slipped from the broom handle and he started to fall.

The onlookers screamed in fright as the sequence of events was all but certain. Sirius was going to fall from his broom to his death, and there was nothing James could do about it...he was too far away.

That is, until Gabriel Barton managed to grab Sirius' collar and manage to stabilize him long enough for Sirius to be able to get back on his broom. He was in no shape to play anymore...not that it mattered since Gabriel had snagged the snitch on the way to stop Sirius from falling.

Sirius leaned on Gabriel who didn't offer a word of complaint while they descended as fast as Sirius could handle. James was one of the first to get to Sirius' side once they were on the ground. He was breathing heavily and Gabriel openly worried that he might have punctured a lung...he had heard that bone snap loud and clear.

Gabriel looked at James, who was showing genuine worry for his best friend.

"I'll cast the stretcher spell and you get the doors," he said.

He was rarely idle whenever he was stuck in Pomphrey's domain. Reading school books was boring as hell, so he often borrowed some of the beginning healer's books from the matronly witch instead.

He knew most of the basic first aid spells, and fortunately the 'stretcher' spell and bone binding was among them.

Gabriel was relieved to find out that it hadn't been Sirius' rib, but his arm that had broken. He bond the left arm firmly and put it in a sling, before levitating Sirius.

James didn't offer any complaints about a Slytherin carrying his best friend to the hospital wing...he was just glad Gabriel had caught him in time.

"What happened...MY WORD!" said Poppy in shock when she saw how pale Sirius was.

"Crouch hit him with an ill-timed bludger. I managed to bind his arm but he's starting to go into shock. I did make sure his ribs weren't broken though," said Gabriel in a no-nonsense voice.

Pomphrey double-checked the injuries and was surprised to learn Gabriel was correct. Sirius had a broken arm and two heavily bruised ribs, but that was the extent of his injuries. The rest was shock from nearly falling off his broom from such a height.

She gave him a calming drought and put him to sleep. He wouldn't be leaving for at least a week.

James turned to face Gabriel, though he had no idea what he would say.

"I'll deal with Crouch. The idiot should have known better than to aim a bludger when his back was turned and there wasn't any chasers nearby. Sirius was in no position to hit it back," said Gabriel.

James stared at him. He was going to get onto Crouch? For what he had nearly done to Sirius? Why?

"Why?" asked James, mouth dry.

Gabriel gave him an odd smile.

"I may be a Slytherin, Potter, but that doesn't mean I condone the fact he nearly killed a fellow student. This was supposed to be a mock game, not a sanctioned one, and he went way too far. When Sirius is ready for visitors I will make certain Crouch apologizes for that stunt, whether he wants to or not. I don't give a damn about house rivalries," answered Gabriel.

James openly stared at him. Gabriel was like no other Slytherin he knew of.

And to make matters even more confusing for the fourteen-year-old, when he mentioned it to Sirius later during dinner his friend didn't even look surprised.

Just what was Barton hiding?


	5. Chapter 5

**Just to nip a few complaints in the bud, here is the timeline to clear things up.**

**Harry travels back in time during fourth year, before he's picked by the Goblet or gets a chance to see the other two schools arrive.**

**Second, because this is during early fourth year, Gabriel has no idea about Sirius being his cousin from his paternal grandmother, the Black family tapestry, or the fact that there's a prophecy about him and Riddle. So please, don't complain about those facts later.**

* * *

Crouch made a formal apology to Sirius during the first dinner he was allowed out of Pomphrey's hawk-like gaze. It was clear that someone had made him do it, but it was still there.

Sirius had accepted it, but the look he shot Gabriel was pretty telling. Something was going on between the Blacks and the mysterious Gabriel Barton.

Gabriel groaned. He _hated_ end-of-the-year exams. Though at least this year had an idea of what was going to happen after them.

To ease his paranoia, he had the goblins send a timed owl that would alert him to his 'guardians' death and the fact that his home village had sunk beneath the sea. It was all going to be blamed on a thief who happened to bear Voldemort's tacky tattoo who was going to be executed by the goblins for trying to claim right of conquest on Gabriel's vault.

With the culprit dead by goblin law, the Ministry wouldn't look any further and Gabriel could continue his education without incident. At least that was the plan.

When the last test was done (including a mock exam by Pomphrey who was openly considering making him her apprentice after the incident with Sirius and the way he had so quickly treated him) Gabriel leaned against a tree near the lake.

"I hate tests," he groaned. If he saw another textbook it would be too soon.

His fellow Slytherins nodded in agreement. Gabriel reached into his bag and grabbed one of his comics.

Once he had established that he was a Hogwarts student until he graduated, he was going to start a minor smuggling ring for the books. They were fascinating enough for the pure bloods to ignore their muggle origin. If he ever found a way to make the pictures move he could probably start his own shop just for comics. Unfortunately he had yet to find the right spell or potion used.

Snape went into his bag and brought out one of the Black Widow comics. He was rather fond of Natasha Romanov, and the trials she went through because of her past.

Lucius however, decided to bring up something the Hogwarts grapevine refused to leave alone.

"So Gabriel...are you aware that Black owes you a life-debt?"

Gabriel groaned in annoyance.

"For the love of Merlin! Why does everyone keep bringing that up?" he asked exasperated.

He had been unaware that because of how close Sirius had been to falling that by saving him he had accidentally gained a life debt with his own godfather. He had no intention of collecting it though.

"Just think! You could make him your..." started one of the Lestrange brothers. Gabriel had never bothered to learn their names.

"No. I saved him because it was the right thing to do, not because I want to make him my own personal puppet. If Crouch hadn't been an idiot I wouldn't have had to save his sorry arse in the first place," said Gabriel in annoyance.

Crouch had been shocked when Gabriel lit into him once they were back in the common room. And that Gabriel had openly threatened to hex him to next Sunday if he didn't at least make a public apology for nearly killing Black.

One of the unspoken rules of the Slytherin house...all conflict between housemates should be kept in-house. Regulus had an odd look in his eye when he saw Gabriel lit into Barty for nearly killing his brother. Like he had been hoping Gabriel would do something, despite the fact that the two brothers didn't exactly get along since Sirius ended up in Gryffindor.

Snape had been the only one to see that look, or notice that Regulus immediately wrote about the incident to his parents the next morning.

"Still..." started Lucius when he noticed an owl coming for them.

"Is that a Gringotts seal?" asked Gabriel. It was well known he had the best eyes of the group.

"I think so," said Regulus. Snape noticed the unsurprised look in Black's eyes.

The owl landed on Gabriel's closed fist, and he relieved it of it's scroll. It hooted once and he put two sickles in the pouch. It flew off back to wherever it had come from.

"What's it say?" asked Snape.

Gabriel opened the scroll, and his expression went from confused to shock as his face paled.

"I need to see Dumbledore," he said.

Regulus didn't follow them, but rather continued to observe Gabriel's acting.

When news of Gabriel's guardians being killed and his village falling into the cold depths of the ocean became known, he found himself swarmed by sympathetic sycophants.

Sirius and Regulus, however, were among those who were observing rather than get caught up in the mess. Regulus sent a second letter to his mother informing her of the letter, and the timing of it.

Gabriel was still going to Grimmauld place later with Snape though. Better he be around friends after such a shock, was what Dumbledore had said.

* * *

Gabriel was very confused as to why Sirius had not been around to give his 'condolences' about the death of his so-called guardians. After he had saved the boy's life he should have at least been around rather than hang near the fringes the entire time.

Not even Regulus had said anything about it other than to confirm Gabriel was still coming to his house for the summer.

So it was understandable why, a few hours after entering Grimmauld place, he didn't think to check for any potions.

He woke up the next morning in a windowless room with Walpurga and Orion Black. They were more curious than anything...though his attention immediately went to the odd tapestry that practically dominated the room.

A tapestry of names and with pictures. A tapestry that he immediately identified as a weird sort of family register. One that had his picture near the more recent branches that lead off from the Potters. With his real name.

_'Oh shit,'_ he thought. No one had told him that Sirius was his cousin through his paternal grandmother!

"Imagine our surprise to see a new name and picture added through the Potters. One we didn't recognize," said Walpurga evenly.

Snape was too busy exploring their potions library. He wouldn't be seen around the house for quite some time, as some of the texts were quite rare.

"And when we find out that this same picture belongs to one of our son's friends...one who knew things no one knows," said Orion.

Gabriel didn't look away from his piercing blue eyes. It was clear where Sirius had gotten his looks.

"Who are you really?" asked Walpurga, her wand clearly visible. She was going to get answers, one way or another.

"My real name is Harry James Potter. I'm from the future," he said bluntly. He was busted...he might as well get this over with, as the Blacks could blow everything unless he played this right.

Seeing their collective surprise he was admitted to something they had only suspected, Orion spoke first.

"Well then, I suppose we need to talk."

* * *

The next day, Gabriel was still laying on the shared room he had with Severus.

_'Well that could have gone worse...much worse,'_ he admitted to himself.

Walpurga and Orion had been less skeptical when they identified the herb that Draco had hit him with. Apparently it grew in the same region that time sand (used to make time turners) originated. There were recorded instances of time-travel when it was hit with certain spells, but they were extremely rare and few in between.

It had been Regulus who had noticed his picture on the tapestry, and a few discreet talks with Dorea, his paternal grandmother, about the Potter family register had alerted them that the thing was telling the truth about a new Black. Though Dorea hadn't told Charlus about the fact that their grandson had ended up in the past by accident. The last thing they needed was for James to find out who he would marry in the future.

Gabriel had at least gotten on the Black Matriarch's good side by exposing Voldemort early and saving Sirius. After finding him on the tapestry Walpurga had ordered her sons to keep an eye on the mystery Black...and his actions. She had been entirely unsurprised about the fact that Gabriel had 'killed' his guardians and his village.

In order to keep Dumbledore from trying to get his claws into Gabriel, the Blacks had come up with a rather simple solution.

They were going to cash in the life debt Sirius owed Gabriel by 'adopting' him into the family. With his guardian 'dead' he would need someone to take him in since he was still a minor and his vaults were restricted until he was seventeen.

It would also keep help him hide the fact he was from the future, as magical adoption would allow him to change his name to the point that the Marauder's Map (which had yet to be created thankfully) wouldn't be able to blow his cover.

For all intents and purposes, his name would be Gabriel Black.

Severus was happy for him, but he was also somewhat depressed. By adopting Gabriel, the Blacks were effectively turning him into a pure blood by association.

That is until he managed to secure an open invitation for Severus so that he could continue to visit Gabriel in the Black ancestral home and their potions library.

Sirius didn't know what to think of Gabriel. For one thing he was the future son of his best friend...and he had saved his life. But on the other hand he was a Slytherin.

Sirius had an open dislike of the house because of his mother and all the hype she put into it. Yet here he was being actually friendly with one that he would hexed bald a year earlier. It was...confusing for him.

And there was the fact he had been made to swear on his magic not to reveal that Gabriel was from the future.

So yes, Sirius was very confused.

Regulus, however, was not.

To him, Gabriel was still Gabriel. He was just related to him directly now. The two of them got along like brothers, and Sirius often felt a little...left out...because his mother had always tried to force him to be the perfect son and he always failed.

Gabriel decided, after seeing Sirius hang around the library without actually reading anything, to at least mend the bridges that had been burned.

And he started by trying to at least make Sirius a little more civil towards his brother and Snape.

* * *

"So what are we doing?" asked Sirius. He didn't know why Gabriel had dragged him into the potions lab.

"We're going to try and become animagi like Battle-Ax McGonagall," said Gabriel.

Snape and Regulus snorted in open amusement. Battle Ax was one of the more...civil...names for the mother lion of Gryffindor.

"Uh-huh. You do realize that people actively try to _avoid_ me in potions right?"

"Who said we were letting you anywhere near the cauldron? We just thought you might want to join in, or at least help with the research," said Gabriel.

"Research is more Remus' area," said Sirius. He hated reading.

Gabriel leaned near Sirius' ear and whispered "If you become an animagi you can give him some company during his time of the month. I bet Remus gets really lonely with no one to play with."

Sirius' eyes went wide. Did Gabriel know about that?!

"Hey Gabriel, how come werewolves can't become animagi? I mean wouldn't it make it easier to turn their curse into a cool animal form?" asked Regulus.

"Werewolves are highly allergic to the bloodthorn root, and there are documented cases where the afflicted in question had a prey animal for their form...and the werewolf killed it and they died," said Gabriel.

"How do you know that?" asked Sirius.

Gabriel coughed, "Someone in your house expressed an interest in werewolves, specifically what plants would keep them away from them during full moons. I bought a book made by werewolves for werewolves and it mentioned allergies in the fifth chapter."

Sirius remembered an odd book Remus had gotten over Christmas that had a list of herbs that would ease the transformation process. Hearing Gabriel's obvious lie, he realized that he must have gotten it for Remus as a gift.

Did Gabriel really not care about Remus' condition?

He sighed.

"I'll go find the books on the process. I think I saw them before in the transfiguration section of the library," said Sirius.

Gabriel waved him off, helping Snape prepare the potion.

Sirius would have to tell James that Gabriel not only knew, but that he had actually helped Remus with his condition.

Perhaps he could see if they would be willing to share the potion with them.

* * *

James read the owl with mixed reactions.

On one hand, Gabriel knew about the fact Remus was cursed. On the other, he had also given Remus a book and the herbs for a special tea that eased the pain he went through each month...and was possibly learning to be an animagus so Remus wouldn't be so alone.

The fact he had been adopted by the Blacks wasn't that big of a shock...he had saved Sirius after all and that would clear up the life debt in the eyes of the school.

Still...what was Gabriel's angle? Slytherins always had some sort of angle going, and it bothered him that he couldn't pin down what Gabriel Black's angle was. Just when he thought he had a fix on it, he goes and does something that throws everything out of balance, like saving and partially healing Sirius.

James owled Remus about this, and Remus admitted Gabriel had given him the book. James could understand why Remus hadn't said anything though. He would have freaked out if he had.


	6. Chapter 6

About a week before they were scheduled to get the new booklists (Orion had bought theirs mostly based on what some of the other pure bloods had gotten the year before judging by the subjects the boys had picked as electives...they could get any new books once the lists came out) there came an owl with a thicker than normal letter. It was for Gabriel.

Curious as to why he was getting something from Hogwarts before the lists went out, he opened it...and gaped at what lay shining in his hand.

"What is it?" asked Severus, stirring the animagus potion.

"They made me Prefect!"

Severus nearly dropped his spoon in shock.

"They WHAT?"

Gabriel showed him the gleaming new badge with Slytherin's mascot shining in the candlelight.

"But you've only been confirmed as a student last month," said Severus in shock. Gabriel read the letter.

"_Dear Mr. Barton-Black,_

_It has been decided among the teachers that since you will be staying for the rest of the three years required of our graduates and will be taking the OWLs as a Hogwarts student that you are the newly elected Slytherin Prefect for fifth year. Mr. Malfoy has charitably agreed that you would be a better candidate than him, as you seem to be the unofficial leader of the house. Here are a list of things available to Prefects of Hogwarts as well as a number of allowed reasons for deducting points and assigning detentions..._

_Sincerely,_

_Deputy Headmistress McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor."_

"What's all the shouting about?" asked Regulus.

"Gabriel's been made Prefect over Malfoy," said Snape.

"Doesn't surprise me. Everyone knows you'd make a better leader for the younger years since unlike the rest of us you've never cared for house rivalries."

"Any idea who I'm going to be dealing with?" asked Gabriel. He never expected to be a Prefect...if anything he would have bet Neville and Hermione would have been the best candidates back in his time.

"Lupin, Evans, Bones, Diggory, Lovegood, Shanks and I heard that Bella was picked for the Slytherin girls," said Regulus immediately.

"Shanks?"

"Ravenclaw. Everyone thought he and Evans were related with his red hair. Has a real penchant for getting into trouble and collecting friends. Can really hold his rum and knows how to fence."

Gabriel thought back to red-haired Ravenclaws and finally placed him.

"Bloke with the scar on his eye that looked like something tried to claw his eye out? One who's always saying he'll become a magical pirate?" asked Gabriel.

Regulus nodded.

"Nice guy," said Gabriel.

"In any case Mum will want to celebrate having the Slytherin Prefects both being in the family...better think of what you want as a reward," said Regulus.

Gabriel knew exactly what he wanted, but it would be impossible to get.

He wanted his old trunk back, the one that had his Firebolt and his photo album.

* * *

Severus and Gabriel were in the bookstore inside Knockturn, mostly for some hard-to-find potions texts. Orion had agreed to get the books required for the year so they could explore Knockturn.

"Ugh. Not another knock off," said Gabriel.

"So what's it like being a Black?" asked Snape.

Gabriel grimaced.

"If it wasn't for the fact that the Blacks adopted me to avoid being stuck with some family who believe Dumbledore is the next coming of Merlin, I would be hopping from one place to the next until graduation," said Gabriel.

That had been his original plan, barring being found out by the Potters. He didn't mind crashing in other people's houses during the summer until he graduated...however getting busted by Sirius' parents had been something he wasn't expecting.

To be fair, Sirius never told them they were related through James' mother.

"How bad is it?" asked Snape worriedly. He knew Walpurga was a total pure blood fanatic...Sirius bitched about his mother often enough in the great hall.

Gabriel gave him a look of pure suffering.

"They're making me take etiquette lessons. Do you have _any_ idea how boring those are?!" he said.

Snape blinked before he snorted and burst out laughing at Gabriel's expense.

Gabriel didn't give a damn about pure blood politics. Etiquette lessons could very well be pure torture for someone as friendly as he was.

"So what exactly was it that you were talking to Mr. Black anyway?"

"Genetics, strangely enough. He wanted to know where I stood on the whole pure blood marriage thing and I told him upfront about the damage the pure bloods had done to their own bloodlines because they kept marrying into families that shared more than one common relative."

"Seriously?"

Gabriel nodded.

"It's scientifically proven that the more relatives you have in common, whether it's one generation or ten, the higher the chance of something being wrong with the child. Look at the Gaunt family...it was documented that the entire line was damn near squib level until Riddle's mother snagged that muggle, and look what happened. A son was produced that could outclass most of the current pure bloods, all because she chose a sire that wasn't related to her at all," said Gabriel.

When Walpurga had heard of this theory, he was quick to compare magical breeding to that of dogs. The whole 'pure blood' concept was just a way for the wizards to show off their heritage...and apparently none of them had drawn the connection to selective breeding of animals. Orion had been very amused by that comparison and had seen his point, but his wife certainly wasn't laughing.

Still, the end result was that Orion was looking outside of Europe for a suitable wife for Regulus and Sirius. It didn't hurt his case that (future) Sirius had mentioned a cousin by the name of Nymphadora who was of the Black bloodline who could change her appearance at will off hand once.

Orion immediately realized Gabriel meant that the girl would be a metamorphamagus, a rare talent in the family that had died out. The fact it was a half-blood of the family who had inherited it was all the reason he needed to look outside Europe.

Though he might reconsider marrying Bellatrix to that Lestrange boy. Hearing that his niece had become a pure blood radical who ended up insane in Azkaban after marrying him had been rather upsetting... but not nearly as upsetting as hearing tales of Draco Malfoy, Narcissa's son.

Really, the lack of decorum and sheer cowardice that boy had shown in Gabriel's memories...he should be ashamed to dishonor their family like that!

In order to avoid personal bias against Draco and the others, Gabriel had offered to let them see his memories of Hogwarts up to the point of the incident. They had accepted the offer and to say they were horrified at how downhill the school had become was an understatement. Seeing how Lucius and Narcissa's marriage would end up had been an even bigger blow.

At the moment only time would tell if Narcissa would end up with the Malfoy boy.

"Look at the bright side...at least they like you?" said Snape.

Gabriel did perk up at that. From what he had heard of the Black family, he had never expected them to actually _like_ him, since he was the half-blood son of a pure blood and a muggleborn.

And it was a small price to pay for a place to live and not having to deal with Dumbledore again.

The two of them soon went into an in-depth discussion of the newest potion books, and mocking the ones that clearly didn't know what they were talking about.

It was so strange, being best friends with a man he had hated since that first lesson...

* * *

"What's that around your neck Gabriel?" asked Regulus.

Gabriel grinned evilly...then hissed. A black python poked it's head from around his neck and looked at Regulus, before curling back asleep.

"You're a parselmouth?!" said Regulus in shock.

"Yeah, so? Snakes aren't evil, but the idiots who use them as symbols are," said Gabriel.

"Yeah but..."

"Tell you what...how about I prank the Marauders for the first half of the semester in a way they can't pin it on me?"

"How do you plan on doing that?" asked Regulus, intrigued by the idea. Just because he and Sirius were on speaking terms didn't mean that he wasn't above pranking his brother.

Gabriel grinned.

"Remember how Snape bitched about my bad singing last year?"

Regulus grimaced. Everyone had heard that bad singing, even down in the common room. They were all thrilled when Snape got him to stop.

"Don't remind me."

"I faked it. Or at least some of it."

It took two seconds for that to sink in.

"You_ what_? Why?"

"Plausible deniability."

"And that is?"

"Means I have a good reason why it couldn't possibly be me who's pranking them."

"What do you have in mind?"

Gabriel's grin grew wider.

"_REGULUS BLACK, PULL YOUR PANTS UP!"_ shouted his mother...or what Regulus thought was his mother. He turned around...and found nothing.

"What the hell?!" said Regulus.

"Know what ventriloquism is?"

"Ventril-what?"

"Ventriloquism. The art of throwing your voice," said Gabriel, "Ever seen people with dummies on their lap making it look like the puppets are the ones talking?"

"No."

"Forgot you were a pure blood. Anyway there's this trick called ventriloquism which allows you to throw your voice wherever you want...and combined with the classes I took to mimic voices...well..."

Regulus suddenly grinned.

"Can you do anyone's voice?"

"Give me an hour or so and I can get it down roughly to something similar enough to fool people. I've done McGongall's voice once...scared the hell out of a few Gryffs last year."

"Ha! Please tell me you have the memories of that!" said Regulus.

"I'll show you back at the house later...so long as Sirius doesn't get a preview of it," snickered Gabriel.

"Deal!"

Gabriel more than happily demonstrated his little trick of throwing his take on someone else's voice for Snape...who immediately hexed him for all the bad singing he had to deal with for nearly a month. After that he was all for helping Gabriel, who had trouble doing female voices.

The Avengers were about to give James and his group a run for their money in pranks this year.

* * *

James had a really weird shiver go down his spine. It was almost like someone was out to prank him, which made no sense at all.

"Hey Sirius!"

"Hey James," said the unhappy Black. Ever since Gabriel came into their lives Sirius had been forced to reevaluate a lot about what he believed. And he didn't like it.

"Barton again?" asked James.

"It's Black now. Remember how he saved my life and then forced Crouch to apologize? Apparently he impressed my parents so much that when they heard about his guardians being killed they adopted him almost on the spot," said Sirius sourly.

"Hey I heard a rumor Snape was with him all summer too. That true?"

Sirius nodded.

"Snape's dad is a muggle, and one who really hates magic. I don't know how Gabriel convinced my parents to let him stay the entire summer, but they know about Remus."

"I heard. Remus said that Gabriel gave him a book about werewolves that really helped him during full moons...and a list of plants to ease the pain of transformation," said James.

"Seriously?"

James nodded.

"Huh...guess that explains why they brought me in on their plans to become animagi," said Sirius.

"Really?!"

"Gabriel said that animagi can't be turned if they're bitten in animal form. And werewolves are only dangerous towards humans," said Sirius.

"Why did he bring you in?"

"He said he had an uncle was a werewolf and he was disgusted with how the Ministry treated them when half the time it's not even their fault that they were bitten."

"So is it true they made Gabriel the Slytherin Prefect over Malfoy?"

Sirius made a face.

"It's true. He's currently with the other prefects at the front," said Sirius grimacing. And his mother hadn't stopped crowing over the fact that both Slytherin Prefects were Blacks this year.

Though there had been a rather weird moment when Gabriel had tripped over an unfamiliar trunk in his room...and then promptly burned several magical books with some bloke with blond hair and too-white teeth.

According to him they brought back bad memories of a rather annoying Hedge-witch who kept having the girls head over heels with him despite the fact he was only good at memory charms.

* * *

Gabriel thought being a prefect would be fun...he hadn't taken into account how annoying it was to be the center of attention yet again.

Lily was giving him these eyes that gave him the creeps and he had taken to using Lupin as a furry shield against them, to his open amusement. Bellatrix was being her usual snobby self, and Gabriel had debated whether it would be worth the headache later to hex her silent.

Instead Gabriel made an open truce with Lupin over the subject of deducting points and bringing any of their rival house to the attention of the teachers.

Remus looked at Gabriel oddly.

"What?"

"I suggest a truce between us, since we're prefects of rival houses. In exchange for not taking away points without evidence to support it, we'll ignore any rule breaking without catching people in the act first," said Gabriel.

Remus blinked. That sounded like an open invitation to prank the hell out of each other so long as they didn't catch the culprit in the act. Lily said as much when she heard his idea.

"Actually this should cut down on the work we'll have to do policing the students. So long as we don't actually catch the culprits, we'll need evidence before we stick some poor soul in detention. Besides, I don't know about you but a truce sounds better than having to look over my shoulder all damn year because I'm worried over being hexed by you lions," said Gabriel flatly.

"I have to admit, it would be nice not having to worry about you doing the same while trying to patrol the hallways," said Remus openly. When he put it like that way, he could agree to a truce.

"Of course that means if I catch James or Sirius I won't hesitate to take them to Flitwick or Kettleburn," said Gabriel.

"Why not McGonagall?" asked Lily.

"Neutral party. McGonagall might do nothing because they're from her house. At least with Flitwick and Kettleburn we can be assured that they won't be motivated by house rivalries," said Gabriel.


	7. Chapter 7

Gabriel rode up with Severus, Regulus and surprisingly enough Neville's father Frank.

Frank was a nice enough guy, and Remus had told him of the open truce between him and Gabriel in concerns to getting evidence before deducting points.

As someone who wanted to be an Auror when he graduated, Frank liked that Gabriel wanted proof before he punished someone.

The two got into an in-depth discussion of plants, and the effectiveness of raising them in different ways to improve their efficacy in potions.

Frank seemed very intrigued about growing plants entirely in water with only minimal soils. Gabriel knew the basics of it, but he had never tried it.

* * *

Gabriel forced Bellatrix to stand in front of the newest crop of Slytherin firsties. When he had offered to give the traditional welcome to Slytherin speech, the other Prefects had jumped on his offer. They hated dealing with the sniveling firsties.

Gabriel smiled at the crop of wet-behind-the-ears first years.

"My name is Gabriel Black...I am the Fifth year prefect. This is Bellatrix, but unless you're from a very noteworthy pure blood house I would recommend avoiding her if possible," said Gabriel. Bella sneered at her 'adopted' cousin. The firsties noted she didn't deny his claim.

"Now, before we all go to sleep, there are a few unofficial rules of this house you should be aware of. First, we keep all fights between our housemates _in house_. We prefer to have a united front in the school, so if you have a quarrel with a friend, do yourself a favor and wait until you're in the common room first. Second, there are no boys allowed in the girl dorms, but girls are allowed to visit the boys. As you're still only eleven we don't expect you lot to get up to anything. Third, if you run into a group of fifth-year Gryffindors who call themselves the Marauders, make sure there is an older student nearby. For some reason they dislike our house greatly and they might target you simply for being Slytherins. For future reference I will have a photo of each of them on the common room bored until you can identify them on sight."

The first years looked alarmed, but the fact that no one was disputing this claim only told them he was being entirely serious.

"Now on to more pleasant matters. There is an open-house study group available to all houses and years lead by Professor Flitwick every Saturday, so if you're having homework trouble feel free to come and ask. Another note is that chances are you'll fall asleep in History of Magic, and some of the upper year Ravenclaws aren't above selling copies of their notes for some coins. If you want to get a decent grade, I'd recommend buying a copy of the notes and using a silencing spell on your ears so you can use History as a free period. Any questions?"

There were none. The other prefects were impressed at how deftly Gabriel had handled the first years without terrifying or offending anyone, all while insuring that he would be the first person they bothered for advice. If he wanted to be friendly with a bunch of brats, they weren't going to stop him.

True to his word, Gabriel had posters of all four Marauders and one of Lily Evans with a warning of why they should avoid them.

The firsties took note of James and Sirius, who were the primary offenders, and of Lily who had a bad habit of taking out her frustrations on the younger students.

As much as Gabriel would love to know his mother, there were some things he would have preferred not to know about. And here he had thought only Petunia could be that bitchy when that time of the month came around...

* * *

Once they were at breakfast, Gabriel implemented the first part of his year-long prank against the Marauders. Or at least Sirius and James.

The second McGonagall turned her back on James after handing out the schedules, Gabriel mimicked his father's voice and used a little slight of hand to hide the fact it was his mouth that was moving with a glass of hot tea as he said loudly from James' general direction _"Nice ass Professor McGonagall!"_

The Great Hall went dead silent in seconds as McGonagall whirled around to find a gaping James.

"Detention Mr. Potter!" she hissed.

Gabriel grinned evilly as he heard Sirius exclaim over what had just happened and ask why his best friend had said that so loudly.

Severus slipped Gabriel three sickles. He had bet his friend that he couldn't get James into detention on the first morning without getting busted, and he had never been more amused to be proven wrong.

Gabriel was collecting several bets from the other Slytherins who had figured out who had been responsible without being told, and walked away a far richer man.

Normally he would worry about someone ratting him out about that trick, but he had openly informed the upper years about his planned prank that should last the entire year and the idea was too amusing for anyone to blab about it.

It was about time someone gave the Marauders a dose of their own medicine, and besides, it was harmless fun compared to half the things they pulled on the house.

Gabriel was prepared to do it a second time three days later, this time on Sirius. He had insulted his cousin in full view of Bellatrix who immediately demanded that he do something about it. Gabriel had people place bets on how long he could get him detention, and the next morning mimicked Sirius' voice rather loudly to compliment a rather 'hefty' girl from Hufflepuff about her 'assets'.

Not only did he get a detention, but he also now had a date for the first Hogsmeade weekend with a girl he never would have looked twice at because of how quickly Gabriel had mimicked his voice before he could say a word otherwise.

Narcissa's pride avenged, she was able to enjoy the horrified looking Sirius go out with a no-name Hufflepuff for the first Hogsmeade weekend.

After that, it was an almost all-out war between the two Marauders to find out who the hell had pulled that particular prank on them.

* * *

Gabriel handed Remus two vials of animagus potion one morning at breakfast.

"One is for Sirius, the other is for James. I would hand you three but frankly I don't think Peter could manage it without bungling it up and blowing our cover to McGonagall," said Gabriel flatly.

"What is it?"

"The potion Severus and I have been working on all summer. It was a real bitch and a half getting it to the castle without it being ruined. Ask Sirius about it...he should know what I'm talking about," said Gabriel.

Sirius, when told the potion was ready, took it from Remus and they headed to their usual place for pranks where he told James what it was.

Gabriel might not like their pranks on his house, but he didn't seem like the type to stoop to poisoning people. Besides, he was way more subtle than that and he had handed the potion in full view of the great hall.

Sirius downed the potion first, and a few seconds later he turned into a large black hound the sized of a bloodhound.

Remus had helpfully taken a few pictures once he got over his shock so Sirius could know what he was turning into. He had already borrowed the book on _how_ to do it from the Black family library and he knew Gabriel had bought his own copy while in Knockturn.

James looked at the vial in his hand dubiously, before he knocked it back as well. He turned into a rather impressive stag.

Peter only looked mildly disappointed that they only had two vials, but felt better when he reminded himself that James and Remus could always brew another batch.

"Well?" asked James.

"Stag."

"Ha!"

"And what about me?" asked Sirius.

"Dog, roughly the size of a bloodhound or maybe a mastiff," said Remus.

Sirius grinned like a loon. He liked dogs, the bigger the better.

"What do you think Snape and Gabriel got?" asked Remus.

"Who cares?" said Sirius. He was still surprised that Gabriel had shared such a useful potion with them.

* * *

"Well?" asked Severus that night.

"Black hawk. I took several pictures from multiple angles."

The better the picture, the easier it was to change into the animal later. Besides, Gabriel had a secret weapon in his trunk which had appeared without warning in his new room at the Black house.

He had books on the biology of multiple animals, allowing an in-depth look at their insides. Gabriel had been planning on becoming an animagus like his father for over a year, ever since he first learned about it when Sirius had told him. So he had spent quite a few pounds on biology books he had double-checked from the local library to insure he didn't get anything wrong.

He didn't know how his trunk got into his room, nor did he particularly _care._

And he had checked repeatedly for any notes or letters to indicate why it had shown up. He just chalked it up to his magic knowing what he really, really wanted and bringing it to him.

Gabriel took the vial offered, downed it, and waited.

A few seconds later Severus was giving him an odd look, though the camera had flashed in his face a few times.

"Well?"

"A fox...I think."

"You think?"

"It had more than one tail. Last I checked, foxes only had one."

"How many?"

"I counted two, at least."

"Too bad we can't have a do-over."

The potion was a one-time thing, and Gabriel had given up the last two samples to Sirius and James. However when he took a good long look at the pictures, he figured out almost immediately what it was.

"A kitsune? Weird," said Gabriel.

"Kitsune?"

"Japanese fox spirit. Noted for it's ability to shapeshift into humans and have control over nature. Is the messenger of Inari, a harvest god in Japan," said Gabriel.

"And you know this _how_?"

"What? I don't just read the Avengers comics, I also read a little known genre called _manga_ which is Japanese graphic novels. Remind me to show you some of the collections I have," said Gabriel.

He had left most of his manga collection in his trunk, and now that he had that back he could share it with Severus. He was willing to bet his friend would love _**Hell Girl **_and some of the other dark stuff he enjoyed reading from time to time.

"Anyway, now that we have a general idea of what our primary animal form is, we study up on the animal itself."

"Primary animal form?"

"I've done quite a bit of research on animagi. I've read reports of people actually having _two_ animal forms after mastering the first one completely," said Gabriel.

"Really?" said Severus in honest surprise.

"Yeah, but all my research suggest is that the potion shows you the strongest animal first, and that trying to use it twice is a really, really bad idea. The only way the people I've found could have two was that they meditated deeply and mastered Occulmency first," said Gabriel.

"Occulmency... I think I've heard about that. That's shielding your mind from mind readers, isn't it?"

"It's the counter to Legilmency, or the magical art of breaking into minds. I've heard rumors Dumbledore is a Legilmens," said Gabriel sourly.

Considering he had avoided the man's eyes since coming here, he felt justified for lying to him.

* * *

Gabriel studied the fox's body for nearly two months in between his ongoing prank war against the Marauders. Finally, when he felt he was ready to make his first attempt, he insured that Severus knew the spell that forcibly reversed the transformation by heart.

Finally he took a deep breath and _pulled_ with his magical core.

He didn't try to fight the fox for dominance. This animal was as much a part of him as he was of it. The kitsune inside him seemed to understand that, as he visualized what he wanted.

With a sudden pop, Gabriel let out a bark of surprise and immediately went to the first mirror in the room.

There, looking back, was a dark silver colored fox with twin tails waving at him. It's emerald green eyes looked back at him playfully.

As an experiment, he tried to copy something he had seen years ago on one of Dudley's old games.

The tails began to spin rapidly and he fell with a thump on his ass from the sudden shock of taking off.

Severus snorted in laughter.

Gabriel shook his head and decided to change back. He concentrated on the way he looked and took it one step at a time. It was the weekend and he had no need to rush.

With a louder pop, he fell flat on his ass for a second time as the transformation came undone. But what he wasn't expecting was the sudden gasp of shock from his friend.

"What?"

Severus pointed at the mirror. Gabriel took one look and knew what had startled him.

"Dammit...of all the times for that weird color change to come undone..." he muttered, before he swiftly reapplied a simple color charm to both his eyes and hair.

His familiar black hair and green eyes had come back after he had returned to his human form.

"Gabriel...why..."

"Why did my hair and eyes change color? Or why did I look like a green-eyed James Potter?" asked Gabriel, giving voice to the two questions Severus had.

Severus nodded, mouth dry from shock.

"If you knew the truth, would you feel better after some senseless destruction that we won't be given detention for? Especially since I hadn't told you sooner?" he asked.

Severus thought about it. On one hand, he trusted Gabriel completely. On the other, after seeing something like that he would prefer something to vent on without getting into serious trouble. He nodded to Gabriel.

"Follow me. Good thing it's still early..."

Gabriel lead him into the secondary entrance (or more likely the primary one Salazar had used, since a girl's bathroom wasn't exactly discreet and this one didn't require a parseltongue password) that lead into the mythical Chamber of Secrets.

Severus stared at the snakes, and at Gabriel when he opened the Chamber.

"This...is the Chamber of Secrets. Inside that relief is Salazar Slytherin's pet basilisk, so you'll have to excuse me if I don't feel the need to wake it up just yet. The last time it got out, it killed the ghost that haunts the girl's loo on the second floor and Hagrid was framed for her murder."

"There's a basilisk in here?!"

"It's asleep. I've checked this place before and I found a stasis spell on the inside of that relief which put the snake into an automatic hibernation cycle whenever it's master didn't need it. A sort of safety measure to keep it from going after the children without anyone to control it."

"How did you know where the entrance was?"

"That's part of the reason I brought you down here. Now if at any time you feel the need to destroy something, you can take out one of those tacky looking snake statues. There's literally _hundreds_ of the damn things around here," said Gabriel rolling his eyes.

"Who are you, really?" asked Severus.

"Me? My birth name is Harry James Potter, and I come from a few decades into your future."


	8. Chapter 8

It had taken several hours and more blasting hexes than he would like to think about, but Severus believed him. Harry, no, he had dropped that name after all the hell he went through as Harry Potter...Gabriel, explained to Severus what little he knew about his parents days as students.

How Tom Riddle had risen to power in the late seventies and let loose a reign of destruction that decimated the magical communities. How he had learned from his potions teacher, the much older and far more cynical Severus Snape, about how James and his gang had bullied him for nearly his entire school years all because he had been Lily's friend. How it had taken the deaths of James' parents before he finally grew up enough for Lily to date him. How Sirius had left the Black family behind and was living on his own.

Gabriel told Severus what he knew about the attack that Halloween night (explaining why he hated that holiday) and how Peter Pettigrew had betrayed the Potters to Voldemort and blamed Sirius for the crime. How Sirius had come back to try and kill the traitor only to be forced on the run because Pettigrew had escaped.

Severus was stunned that despite how much 'Harry' had disliked his teacher, he had still chosen to be a Slytherin and befriend the man's younger self instead of immediately joining James and his cohorts in Gryffindor.

Though he could completely understand why Gabriel had zero interest in Lily Evans. Who would want to date their own mother?

"Does Dumbledore know about this?"

"Absolutely not. Dumbledore was the reason I was placed with my magic hating aunt, and I know McGonagall tried to warn him off placing me with Petunia Dursley a few hours after the attack. And I suspect he had someone watching the house too, because a couple of times I tried to get away only to have my records erased and back in the house less than a week later," said Gabriel angrily.

The only explanation for why his juvenile records had always been missing was if Dumbledore had someone watching him and warning them whenever he tried to escape.

Living in a juvenile detention facility was infinitely preferable to living with his aunt...he knew, because he had been in one for over a month before he was suddenly thrown back. They had even dumped him in an orphanage, and he still ended up back in that tiny cupboard a week later.

So yes, he could say with all honesty that someone had to be spying for that damn old goat. And the minute he figured that out, he had lost any and all trust for Dumbledore he ever had.

"So my older self was practically Dumbledore's puppet?" asked Severus, changing the subject. He found it hard to believe that his older self would dance to that senile old goat's fife.

"I looked into it after hearing about you from Remus...future Remus anyway... You were a Death Eater who had gotten off because Dumbledore claimed you were his personal spy. And I know something had to be forcing you to stay here, because you absolutely hated children and yet you were teaching a very detail-oriented class to a bunch of first years who didn't know the first thing about potions and snapped at anyone who didn't get it right on the first go."

Severus shuddered. Teaching potions was one thing, teaching children was something he would _hate_ to do unless he had no other choice.

"I do have it on good authority to tell you that you were the most universally feared professor in the school. Right in front of McGonagall and Filch," Gabriel added dryly.

"How feared?"

"You barked, and the students listened. You could silence an entire classroom simply by entering and glowering menacingly. I could share the memories if you like," offered Gabriel with a grin.

"Where would we get a pensieve?"

"I'm fairly sure we could borrow one from the Blacks. They had a look at how far the school had fallen when they figured out I wasn't exactly telling the truth about my origins," said Gabriel.

"How?"

"Apparently there's a self-updating tapestry in the Black family home that showed me and Regulus happened to recognize me. I covered my tracks with the Potters, but no one had warned me that I was also related to Sirius," said Gabriel with a nervous chuckle.

"So does this mean that you'll give up that mimicking prank?"

"Not a chance!" said Gabriel with a laugh.

Before they left back the way they came, Severus said quietly "Thank you... for trusting me I mean."

"I figured you deserved the unabridged truth, especially given how much grief James gave you over the years. Besides, you're infinitely preferable as a friend compared to Ron."

"Ron?"

"Ronald Weasly, the youngest son and second youngest of seven children by Arthur and Molly Weasley. Everyone seemed to think that I would marry the youngest, a girl by Ginerva 'Ginny' Weasly once I graduated," shuddered Gabriel. He loved the Weaslys, but there was no way in hell he would ever marry someone so similar to his own mother.

Especially since he now had someone to compare Ginny to.

Severus chuckled.

* * *

Gabriel was helping Severus learn how to fly when he noticed something outside. He looked up and saw the big full moon and it didn't take a genius for him to figure out that one of the Marauders had learned the bare bones of being an animagus within the two short months since he had given them the potion.

Too bad Severus and Gabriel were way ahead of them in terms of transforming.

Unlike the Marauders, Severus and Gabriel were more concerned about getting the transformation perfected before they really took them out for a spin.

In other words, flying.

Severus still couldn't believe Gabriel could fly around using only his two tails.

"What idiots they are. They only have the bare bones of being able to transform and they're dumb enough to run around in the open with them," said Severus.

"To be fair, it is a full moon. Remus was probably rather lonely."

"What does the full... Wait, you mean he's..."

"Someone who had the worst luck of having a parent who pissed off Fenrir? Yes. He's perfectly harmless except this time of the month, and it's part of the reason why I wanted you to master flying."

"Why?"

"Animagi can't be turned if bitten while in their animal form," said Gabriel.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Plus this way we can totally hit them with balloons filled with gender swapping potions from the Great Hall rafters," smirked Gabriel.

"That is cruel and unusual. I like it."

"If we angle it just right, they'll think it was the Puffs,"

"If you can pin the blame on someone else, do it," said Severus, quoting an unofficial motto of the Slytherin house.

Or as Gabriel had made an impassioned speech one night when some of the first years had gotten hit by the Marauders...

"_We are the Slytherin house! We stand up for our own, because no one else will! We are sneaky, back stabbing bastards who will only help others if there is something in it for us, and damn proud of it!"_

And with that one simple speech, Gabriel rallied the entire Slytherin house behind him...because he had hit upon the core feelings of Slytherin.

They were proud to be sneaky back-stabbers who stood up for their own. They weren't ashamed to be cunning or ambitious.

Severus wouldn't be surprised if Gabriel made head boy at the rate he was going.

* * *

Gabriel and Severus were up in the rafters above the Hufflepuff side of the Great Hall. Gabriel had disillusioned several water balloons filled with random potions. Severus had a better arm than Gabriel did, so he took good aim at James' drink...and fired. The potion-filled balloon emptied into his drink and James never noticed the rubber when he took a sip. Two minutes later he squawked as his best friend disappeared and he got two new 'friends' on his chest.

Gabriel snickered evilly.

The next one to get hit was Peter...he shrank several inches until he looked like an ickle first year again.

Sirius looked around and barely caught the next balloon, only this one broke upon contact with his skin and turned him from boy into a very hairy dog-man.

"Take cover! It's coming from the Puffs!" shouted Sirius.

The Gryffindors took cover, then Gabriel put his vocal skills to good use as he yelled "FOOD FIGHT!"

The muggleborns were quick to seize on the chaos, and soon food was flying everywhere. No one was safe.

Gabriel aimed a hair-growth potion at Dumbledore, who was likely the only person who would see through their disillusion charm. It hit him on the head and soon his vision was obscured by his own hair.

The two took off and snuck into the Great Hall.

No one asked where they had been, only that they were glad Gabriel was so good at catching things to hand to the chasers to throw back.

The best part? No one knew who had started the mess, but the Marauders were the ones stuck cleaning everything up because Sirius had been the one to falsely accuse the Hufflepuffs for dosing them!

* * *

Gabriel was reading the _Prophet_ when he saw an advertisement that had him doing a double take.

_'This...explains a lot...'_ thought Gabriel.

In the _Daily Prophet_ was an advertisement for a new Joke Shop...called the _Supernatural_ _Mischief_.

Gabriel had introduced the twins to the _Supernatural_ series, and they had gotten hooked on the adventures of the Winchester brothers. Mostly because they had luck as bad as their surrogate little brother, yet were as close as the twins.

Gabriel had promised to get them an 1967 Black Impala once they learned how to drive. So long as they agreed to be his personal chauffeurs that is.

The next thing he did was immediately go to the Owlry and write a letter.

_'You sarden tossers, why didn't you tell me you followed me into the past? ~Harry (You can get a hold of me by writing letters to Gabriel Black, or Gabriel Barton.)'_

Hedwig flew off into the night and returned with a large package.

_'Harry! _

_Or should we say Gabriel..._

_Smashing to hear from you old boy!_

_How did you get adopted by the Blacks?_

_Which house are you in?_

_When can you visit?_

_Enjoy the prezzies! We made sure to stock you up with the good stuff! _

_Fred and George.'_

Gabriel laughed. Even in writing they still managed to do the twin-speak. Inside was a two-way diary, the other likely connected to the twins themselves. Also inside was a large amount of pranks that the twins had still in development when he left.

He grinned as he opened the book and started writing. At least this time he knew full well what it was connected to.

_Any Avengers out there?_

_**Gabriel!**_

_Hey Gred, hey Forge. Got your package. Why didn't you tell me you followed me into the past?_

_**We weren't sure whether or not we landed in the right time. Took us fifteen minutes to figure out which spell set off that root so we could follow you with all our gear. Dumbledore's gone nuts since he found out you escaped the Tournament. You just barely avoided getting roped into being a Champion. So what are the Marauders like?**_

_Don't get me _started_ on Sirius and James. The teachers were sugarcoating a LOT of the stories they told me. You guys at your worst are still better than them, and half the time their pranks leave people in tears! Coincidentally, I may have really pissed off Voldemort before he even learns about me._

_**HOW?**_

_I blew the fact he's a half-blood son of a squib and a muggle out of the water...it's part of the reason why the Black family adopted me. That and no one warned me that they had a self-updating tapestry in their _HOUSE.

_**Potter luck?**_

_Potter luck. With a healthy dose of Slytherin mentality. Oddly enough they made me the Slytherin Prefect this year. Did you know Snape used to have a crush on my mother because she was the only girl brave enough to stick around once the Marauders started targeting him?_

_**Wait. You're a SLYTHERIN? And a Prefect to boot?!**_

_Slytherin, because that reduces the chance of blurting out who I really am and keeps people from wondering why I look like James Potter with different hair and eye color. And Prefect because for some reason I became the most influential fifth year practically overnight. I may have also befriended Snape._

Gabriel grinned as he could imagine their minds being blown by that. Finally they replied...

_**So long as you don't go befriending Malfoy we can live with that.**_

_Not a chance of that. Apparently James Potter has an ongoing feud with Lucius Malfoy over something that happened while they shared magical tutors. Besides, why would I befriend anyone who would have joined the Death Eaters if I hadn't exposed Voldemort for the fraud he was?_

"Who are you talking to?" asked Severus.

"Remember those twins I told you about? The ones who came up with those cupcakes that turned the idiots into giant birds? Apparently they followed me here, but it wasn't until I saw an ad for their shop that I found out."

"The potions geniuses?" said Severus eagerly.

"Yeah. Funny thing, when I told them we were best friends they said they could live with it so long as I didn't go befriending Malfoy," said Gabriel.

Severus laughed. He could understand why...Malfoy was everything Gabriel hated. Snobbish, arrogant and believed he was better than everyone simply because he was a pure blood.

Plus there was the small issue of Malfoy having a feud with Gabriel's father, James.

"Any chance we could meet them?" asked Severus hopefully.

"When's the next Hogsmeade weekend?"

Severus looked it up.

"In three days."

"They'll be at the Three Broomsticks. Just to warn you, they have an irritating habit of doing twin speak a lot."


	9. Chapter 9

Severus was eager to meet the infamous Fred and George. Mostly because he wanted to swap potions recipes with them.

Gabriel practically dragged Severus to the pub, and when he saw a pair of identical twins he grinned.

"Gred! Forge!"

"Gabe!" they called in unison.

Severus blinked. They really were identical.

"And this must be Fury!" said the right one.

"When are we going to meet Stark and the others?" asked the left.

"Soon. They should be arriving in a couple of minutes."

"And what does the great and powerful..."

"Loki want of us?"

"Fury here wants to swap potions recipes, and I know you two chuckleheads want a peek at the ongoing prank war between the Avengers and the Marauders," grinned Gabriel.

"You weren't kidding about the twin-speak," said Severus. It was like watching a tennis match.

The twins grinned, and they went into a private booth near the back while the 'Avengers' started to file in.

"Right, now that we're all here, allow me to introduce the Chaos Twins, Fred and George. And before you ask Widow, they are pure bloods from a long line. So keep that snarky tongue in check please," said Gabriel.

Narcissa nodded. After Gabriel had avenged her honor after what Sirius had said to her, she had joined their little group. Gabriel immediately called her the Black Widow, after explaining what it meant and showing her the comics in question. She fell in love with the assassin and the fact that she was one of the best fighters in the group.

"So who's who?"

"Narcissa here is the Black Widow. Severus is Fury. Regulus here is Stark. Frank is Steve Rogers. Then of course we have Shanks the Wolverine. These two chuckleheads are the Prewitt twins, and yes you can talk to them later... They go by Iceman and Pyro. And we can't forget Diggory, or Coulson."

"Don't forget us!" said Fred.

"After all, who could ever forget the infamous Discord and Anarchy?" asked George.

"And of course I'm Loki. Now I think that's everyone."

"So where are those memories your promised us?" asked Fred eagerly.

"Remember that prank I played on Ron a few years back? The one where he got detention for a week?"

The twins started laughing.

"Ronnikins was most put out..."

"When his former friend pranked him like that!"

Gabriel grinned as he handed over the memory vials.

"Now do you have the agreed trade?"

Fred grinned.

"You bet we do! Copied it and we have some of the samples."

"What trade?" asked Narcissa.

"Remember those comic books I keep letting people borrow copies of?"

Narcissa made a face. She liked the Black Widow, but the rest not so much.

"Well these two jokers found the potion I need to make the pictures move. Between Fury and me, we can have the first magical comic book store in England!"

"And what about us?" asked Frank.

"Investors," said Gabriel.

"Fact is, we have one of the only prank shops that could challenge the big boys," said Fred.

"But we lack the right capital to really take off," said George.

"Remember when the Marauders turned into giant birds? These two goofballs are the ones who came up with the potion that did it."

"You actually tricked the Marauders into eating the Canary Creams?" asked Fred eagerly.

"There's a reason why we call him Loki," said Severus dryly.

"He makes for one very hot woman. My brother didn't even think twice about accepting the cupcakes," said Regulus smugly.

"Please tell me you have pictures," said George, eyes glinting.

"I gave you the memories of them turning into Canaries," said Gabriel.

"Not of that. Of you in drag," said Fred.

Gabriel banged his head against the table.

"No and _hell_ no. You two make enough blackmail without my help. No way am I giving you pictures of that."

"I'll give them in exchange for help in getting some of the harder to find potion ingredients," said Severus immediately.

"Deal!"

Later the Prewitt twins would corner Gabriel about who Fred and George really were...they looked far too much like their sister Molly for their comfort.

Fortunately Gabriel already had a Fidelius up and running around his true identity and the fact he was from the future. It took little doing to alter the charm to include Fred and George...especially when Walpurga learned that they were two pure bloods with a very successful business already up and running.

They wouldn't be Blacks, but they would have more capital to challenge the prank shops in England.

* * *

Gabriel was on his way for a snack run (the twins having enlightened him to the whereabouts of the kitchens) when he nearly ran into one Remus Lupin.

"You okay Remus?"

"Fine. Sirius got busted in a prank, so I'm stuck being their gopher for the kitchens," said Remus, taking Gabriel's hand. Gabriel had been nothing but nice to him, so he didn't have to worry about being hexed.

"Still having trouble with you-know-what?"

"The book and tea have helped greatly. Not to mention that potion you shared with Sirius and James."

"Wonder how Moony... yes I know about your little codename Remus... would react to Tails?"

"Tails?"

"Long story short my fat cousin back on the island liked this game called _Sonic_ that had a fox who could fly on two tails. So everyone called him Tails."

"I heard a rumor that you started your own little group... a counter to the Marauders?"

"The Avengers. I don't like pranks that leave more people crying instead of laughing. No offense Remus, but Sirius and James cross the line between playing pranks and outright bullying more than I like," said Gabriel.

Remus winced. He would openly admit that the other two could get a little cruel.

"They need a wake-up call that people won't ignore their bullying behavior once they graduate. Dumbledore might cover up for them now, but what happens when they leave? Do you really want your best friends following Dumbledore like puppets on a string?"

Remus looked unhappy. It was because of Dumbledore that he had been allowed to attend in the first place. A sort of experiment on whether werewolves could learn magic without endangering the students.

All it would take was one attack or near miss, and it could ruin things for others afflicted with his curse.

"Tell you what... I have some comics that you might like. How about I drop them off in the Great Hall before lunch tomorrow and you tell me how the lions react to them? We recently developed a potion that allows the pictures to move, though they don't talk," said Gabriel. This was an excellent time to expand on his business venture.

"What sort of comics?"

"Trust me, I guarantee you'll identify with them once you read a few," said Gabriel dryly.

The plight of the mutants and their struggle to fit in a world that mostly wanted them dead? The battle between Magneto and Professor Xavier as they fought to prove who had the right way of dealing with humanity's intolerance?

Remus would identify with that, he just knew it...mostly because he had been the one to suggest the series.

* * *

"What you got there Remus?"

"Some series Gabriel recommended. And before you say anything he already had them charmed to be indestructible and the only potions added to it were ones to make the pictures move a little," said Remus.

He had gotten hooked by the first book on _X-Men_, and had already read through the first fifteen copies Gabriel had left him via Lily.

The moving pictures only made it more entertaining for the pure bloods, and Gabriel was already starting on a business plan to sell them after they were dosed with the potion.

Remus still found it amusing that Gabriel was slowly corrupting the pure bloods with potioned muggle comics.

"I can't believe Gabriel knows those twin hunks!" gushed Lily a little further down the table.

Alice nodded, but it was clear she only had eyes for Frank Longbottom.

"Any idea who they are?" asked Patty, a Hufflepuff girl who was in their year.

"No idea, but did you see how close Gabriel was to them?" said Alice.

"Like Sirius and James," said Lily nodding.

James perked up when he heard Lily say his name, but when he realized she wasn't talking about him to the others went back to talking to Sirius.

"Wonder if Narcissa would tell us their names..." sighed Selene. She had her eyes on a Ravenclaw by the name of Xenophilius, but it never hurt to branch out.

Severus, who had been passing by the girls to deliver more comics to Remus (they had declared a truce in exchange for any shed werewolf fur as Gabriel remembered it had been Snape's older self who had first found the Wolfsbane Potion...sadly the twins had an almost illegible copy of the potion so he would have to work with only a few of the ingredients) told them.

"Their names are Fred and George...don't ask me which is which though."

Lily gave Severus puppy eyes. Severus rolled his.

Ever since he befriended Gabriel, his crush had died a silent death when he realized how much of a brat Lily could be. James could have her.

"They're twin brothers, and they're from the same island Gabriel came from. Apparently they had just left to start up a new joke shop and just missed the attack on their home. Gabriel found them through one of their ads and they agreed to met up with us at Hogsmeade."

"What are they like?" asked Alice.

"A friendlier and more pleasant version of the idiots over there," said Severus, nodding towards Sirius and James.

"Gred and Forge are pranksters, but as far as I'm aware they've never crossed the line into bullying. People actually _enjoy_ their pranks, but not when they end up on their list of people to hit," said Gabriel.

"Can you get us their address?" asked Lily with big doe eyes.

"Sorry no. Fred and George are more interested in getting their shop up and running well enough to take on the bigger ones, not dating at the moment.

Besides, the idea of them accidentally snaring his mother made him a little queasy.

* * *

Gabriel once again woke Severus up in a hyper mood...though this time he was slightly drunk. Fred and George had spiked some of the frogs they sent him, and Gabriel had eaten them all.

It was enough to make him tipsy, but not so much that the teachers would catch on right away. Especially with how hyper he had been last year after eating all the chocolate in Slytherin.

"Merry Christmas! Guess what the twins sent?"

"It had better be some pepper up and a hangover potion, otherwise I am not dealing with you," deadpanned Severus.

"Better. Open this up," smirked Gabriel.

"Is that an ice cream scoop?" asked Severus, wondering what was so special about it.

"Read this first."

"'Instant color-changing snowballs. Add your favorite potion and scoop up snow to make instant ammo against your friends. Can hold up to three different vials of potions. From the twisted minds of Discord and Anarchy'," read Severus.

Severus looked at Gabriel, and his eyes glinted evilly.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Death from above?" asked Gabriel innocently.

"That too. I'm thinking gender-switching potions and Slytherin colors for all," said Severus smirking.

"Just remember to consult the list I gave you. We don't want to poison Remus by accident," said Gabriel.

Severus nodded. As much as he disliked Sirius and James, Remus had been nothing but civil towards him.

"Which reminds me... I have your present here for you," said Gabriel.

Severus accepted the box, and opened it. It was his own collection of manga and his favorite _Marvel_ comics. Inside was the potion ingredients that Severus had trouble getting because of how hard it was to find them.

For Gabriel, Severus had gotten him several books on Japan's magical species, since he had ended up as a two-tailed fox for his animagus form. Needless to say Gabriel had been thrilled.

* * *

James was more than slightly worried by how hyper Gabriel was.

That quickly turned into an all out war when Gabriel and Severus took full advantage of their new 'potioned snow ball makers' and the brooms Gabriel had borrowed and left the Marauders seeking any shelter they could find in a hurry. Peter took too long and ended up looking like some sort of hippie woman from Woodstock.

Remus barely avoided getting hit by using the shield charm a lot.

The Marauders got their own back though...the next morning they charmed the ceiling in the great hall to dump a large amount of snow right on top of the two.

They ended up with a nasty cold, but the looks on the annoyed 'female' Marauders made it entirely worth it.

Gabriel enjoyed the looks of shock from those staying behind for Christmas holidays when he set off the twin's fireworks. The dragon reminded him of something he had seen before being sent to the past from the movie _Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring_.

Seeing the challenge in the Marauder's eyes, Gabriel knew that the twins might have some competition if the Marauders ever figured out how to make their own fireworks.

Not likely, with how bad Sirius was at potions.


	10. Chapter 10

It was Valentine's day again, and this time, Gabriel had a whole lot more girls after him.

Part of it was due to the fact he was now legally a Black, but most of it was because of his personality and the fact he planned to stay.

Severus was very, very surprised that he had few of his own. For the past four years he had only ever gotten a platonic chocolate and card from Lily, and suddenly he was dealing with having his own fans.

It was an odd feeling for him.

"Want me to check yours while I check mine?" said Gabriel.

"Deal."

Between the two of them, they managed to ferret out the potioned chocolates.

Severus was mildly surprised Gabriel found so many in his own stash.

Gabriel then had an idea for some quick pocket change. Once he had finished with his hand written thank you notes (convincing Severus to do the same) they two immediately offered to double check the chocolates of the other boys like they had their own.

The pure bloods and some of the half bloods jumped on the offer. Checking all that chocolate was a tedious task none wanted to do, so the chance to get someone else to do it for a small fee of three galleons was a bargain.

They only found thirty out of five hundred, so Gabriel felt it was a small price to pay for an hour's work.

Severus saw what Gabriel had in mind, and he just knew that this was an excellent way to make some cash off the same idiots who thought half-bloods made them half wits.

* * *

Gabriel was on his way to the library when he saw Sirius bullying a first year Slytherin.

"Dammit, not again."

Gabriel rounded the corner and hit Sirius with hex that forced him in place. The firstie looked at Gabriel with wide eyes before he nodded gratefully to him

It was well known among the staff that Gabriel took his job protecting the younger years very seriously.

"I have told you before Black, leave the first years alone. In case you've forgotten, first years grow up rather fast and some of them can hold a grudge long after you leave. I'm going to take you straight to Flitwick and see you get a detention," scolded Gabriel irritably.

Sirius and James had been getting worse of late, and Gabriel fully blamed their hormones kicking into full gear. Remus had tried to reign them in, but Gabriel knew a lost cause when he saw one.

Lily's attitude problem had started to simmer down after her father's near death thanks to a heart attack and the scare she had gotten worrying about him. Most of her personality had slowly started to calm down after learning how close a call it had been, since she was actually closer to her father than her mother.

Gabriel was just glad she had given up trying to snare him as a boyfriend, and that she had started to repair her relationship with Severus after he had convinced his friend to send Micheal Evans a get well soon card and some wizard candy that no one would bat an eye at.

Apparently some of the potions he had laced the chocolate with had helped Micheal's recovery a little bit.

Once he delivered Sirius to Flitwick, once again sighing over the idiocy of teenage hormones, he though the matter was over.

It wasn't.

James and Sirius waited until they _knew_ he would be in the library with Remus looking up things that would help the younger students with their tests that were looming around the corner to target Severus, who had started talking to Lily again.

It didn't end well. For anyone.

* * *

Gabriel was in the library when he saw the two Marauders corner Severus in a way the teachers wouldn't see at a glance. His frown turned to white hot anger as he saw them push his friend to the ground and spill his bag, and knew that the Marauder's bad habits were starting to take a turn he had been trying to avoid for months.

They were turning from arrogant pranksters into outright bullies, and he was not pleased.

Fortunately Remus saw the same thing, so he needed no explanation as he raced out the door.

He reached the ground floor and outside in time to see James Potter use a common silent jinx that caused people to be hung from their ankle on his friend, and he saw red.

James didn't know what hit him. One minute he was taunting a quickly-turning-red-faced Severus Snape, the next he was on the ground holding his jaw from a nasty right hook. Sirius found himself on the wrong end of a very pissed off Gabriel Black, and was left with a broken jaw and black eye from the teen's well thrown punches. Peter tried to escape, but Gabriel wasn't letting him go that easily...he had been the one to rip Severus' bag from his hands.

By the time a teacher heard about the fight, it was all over. Gabriel helped his friend off the ground after he broke the hex and glared defiantly at Dumbledore, who had been the first authority figure to arrive.

"What is the meaning of this Mr. Black?" he asked Gabriel. The teen noted he wasn't even going to address the Marauders, likely blaming the Slytherins for this mess.

"Sirius, James and Peter were pushing Severus around, and Gabriel ran out of the library to help him," answered Remus. Seeing the betrayed look on the faces of the other Marauders, Remus gave them a disappointed one of his own at them.

"I've been trying to curtail their bullying for months, but _someone_ keeps giving them detentions that don't fit the crime," said Gabriel angrily.

He had kept track of what the Marauders got after he caught them bullying, and to say he was pissed was an understatement.

They only got lines or a minor cleaning job under Filch, not what others had gotten in the past for similar behavior. And when asked by Gabriel why the punishment had changed, he had been told Dumbledore had overruled the teachers in question.

Needless to say the heads of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were rather unhappy with the headmaster at the moment. Gabriel at least insured that a neutral third party would give the detentions and not their head of house, who was definitely biased towards them.

Severus glared at Dumbledore.

"I was trying to work on a new potion recipe when James waltzed up and started bad mouthing me and my mother. Apparently he doesn't like the fact that Lily and I are friends again. Then Sirius pinned me to the tree and Pettigrew ripped my bag open. Gabriel got here in time to get me down from the hex James used on me," said Severus, eyes black with anger.

In another life, Severus had been stuck in the air for nearly thirty minutes before a teacher got him down. It had only cemented his hatred for James Potter and Sirius Black.

Now he was just pissed at them and waiting for Gabriel's idea of payback for this stunt. He knew that while Gabriel could take a lot of grief for himself, he always stood up for his friends.

When faced with proof from Remus (Severus was outraged that Dumbledore was so clearly biased towards Gryffindor) he had to give punishment to the other three. But the fact they only had to do lines made Severus very certain he would never again trust Dumbledore.

* * *

"LINES?! Those bastards humiliated him, could have damaged his notes and things and all the got were _lines_?" hissed Narcissa angrily.

Narcissa liked Severus' acid tongue, and he didn't mind making the beauty potions she favored for a much lower price than she would have had to pay.

Gabriel had been very surprised that Narcissa had sent Severus chocolate for Valentine's day.

"He wouldn't believe Gabriel, but when Remus backed his story about seeing it from the window he had no choice but to believe him," said Severus angrily.

Gabriel hated lying, except about where he came from.

Gabriel was currently seething by the fire. What James and Sirius had done nearly wrecked all the work Severus had put into coming up with the winning combination to recreate the potion Remus needed.

Remus, when he heard what it was about, had agreed to be a very eager test subject. If this worked his name would be on the published recipe for the potion as one the first test subject, and he would get some of the gold for helping make it. Not nearly as much as Severus or Gabriel, but a small portion.

"Can we step up the prank you've been doing?" asked Narcissa.

Gabriel's ongoing prank against the Marauders was considered the highlight of fifth year. None of them had figured out who was mimicking their voices so well that they kept getting into trouble.

As it was, Gryffindor was well behind Slytherin.

"No. I'm thinking of something much more effective than stepping up a rather harmless prank," said Gabriel.

"What do you have in mind?"

"What do you know of illusions? Ones that only target specific people and leave everyone else confused?" said Gabriel, remembering something from third year where Remus spoke of the incident that nearly cost Snape his life.

Sirius had tricked Snape into going into the Whomping Willow, only to be saved by James at the last second. If things progressed as they should, Sirius might try to do the same thing next year...and this could be used as a catalyst to knock some much need sense into those idiots and teach them a valuable lesson.

He just needed to get the Potters in on his plan.

James and Lily never got together until seventh year, after James lost his parents after his sixth. Gabriel planned to save the Potters, but he still needed a wake up call from the death of someone close.

Narcissa's eyes gleamed.

"What do you have in mind?"

"I'll tell you and the other Avengers later. Don't want the _headmaster_," Gabriel spat the word out like a vile disease, "Catching wind of my idea."

Dumbledore had lost a great deal of support from the neutral families in Slytherin, and a good portion of support from the rest of the houses. The fact he had only given lines to the Marauders involved in outright bullying would not sit well with the parents of their usual victims.

* * *

"So what's really going on Gabriel?" asked Severus once he had cast the charms to prevent eavesdropping.

"Sixth year, Sirius tricked you into the Whomping Willow during a full moon and you came face to muzzle with Moony. James barely saved your life," said Gabriel bluntly.

"Why the hell would I listen to Black?!"

"You wanted to know where Remus disappeared to. Needless to say you hated werewolves after that, and held a barely restrained resentment towards Remus."

"You plan to recreate the event."

"More like something close to it. You won't be near Remus, but we need to insure that word of a rogue werewolf is heard nearby. Remember my plan to be a double animagus?"

Severus nodded...then his jaw dropped when he came face to muzzle with a _massive_ wolf.

"What the hell is that?"

"A dire wolf, an extinct magical wolf. They became the smaller breeds we know due to lack of available foods. Anyway here's the real plan."

Severus was impressed with the cunning of Gabriel's devious mind.

He planned to let Severus pretend he wanted to know more about Remus, since Gabriel had never once spoken a word of his condition out of respect for his privacy. Sirius would likely use that to tell Severus about the willow and try to get Severus bit.

What Gabriel planned was for a copy-Severus to do the investigating and then make it look like _another_ werewolf spotted him first and tried to bite him. His dire wolf form was big enough to be mistaken for one.

Then, once the year ended James would receive word of the Aurors looking for a young werewolf and were investigating Remus. They would fake his death, giving him all the excuse he would need to avoid the Marauders and make them face cold hard reality that their actions had serious consequences.

Once seventh year began, Remus would reappear and tell them what had really happened to a point and insure that the message stuck.

An entire summer of believing they had caused a close friend's death should be enough of a wake-up call that the Marauder's needed to get them to stop. If not, then they were going straight to St. Mungo's to check for any spells altering their personality.

It was devious, cruel, and most importantly one lesson that should stick firmly in their minds about what they were doing was wrong.

And, as Gabriel had noted the escalation of their bad habits, it would also start to shift the attention from Gryffindor onto Slytherin.

After hearing what punishment they got from the Headmaster, Gryffindor was slowly becoming the least liked house instead of Slytherin.

Such outright favoritism from someone like Dumbledore was not a good thing, and Slytherin had been gaining popularity for months now since Gabriel became prefect.

The other houses were starting to follow _his_ lead, not Dumbledore.

The fact he was acting like a much more pleasant and friendly Tom Riddle was not lost on him either.

* * *

Gabriel groaned as he finished the last exam. He hated end of term tests, and OWLs were infinitely worse.

However he took great pleasure in the fact that he hadn't had to suffer Hermione's inevitable study sessions from hell for it.

Severus once asked why he had never tried to get back to his own time, and had been surprised by Gabriel's answer.

"I _like_ being in the past more than the present. Here no one stares at me like the next coming of bloody Merlin, or talks about me behind my back outside of wondering why I'm such a nice person and still in Slytherin. Plus there's the fact that I don't have to deal with Ron's jealous tendencies, Hermione's hellish study guides, or Draco's damn taunts all bloody year. I can actually have a _normal_ school year without some grand adventure. Why would I _want_ to go back when I like being a snake more than a damn lion?"


	11. Chapter 11

Remus was very easy to get on board with the plan. He had noticed the rather disturbing rise in actual bullying with his friends, and despite what he tried, they refused to even listen to his complaints after he stood beside Severus and Gabriel. Lily had been furious when she found out what they had gotten for bullying her friend.

The odds of James ever getting together with Lily Evans were dropping like a stone.

Even if Remus was a bit uncomfortable to being that close to biting someone he considered a friend...Gabriel had soothed some of that by having Severus change into his secondary animal form.

Once Gabriel had explained what to do to get a second animal to use, he had gotten it surprisingly quickly. Severus was a large black panther he named Midnite.

Just to make sure that they didn't get busted, Gabriel and Severus registered their secondary animal with the Ministry so they could claim innocence if their first ones were found in a prank.

Too bad McGonagall was biased towards her own house, or she would have been very impressed with the amount of work the two snakes had put into their transfiguration.

Gabriel was amused to learn that their Transfiguration OWL grades were automatically upgraded from an E to an O when the examiners learned they had become animagi long before the tests.

As for potions... Slughorn had them doing something special over the summer in between researching how to make Wolfsbane.

Gabriel had never heard of 'Liquid Luck', but Severus had and he was eager to try brewing it.

If they made a successful sample before school restarted, they would automatically be given their choice in apprenticeships with any potions master of their choosing. They would also be exempt from any more potion classes, as the potion itself was worthy of a Mastery on it's own.

That meant more time for Severus to make his own recipes or improve on older ones.

It was a good thing Gabriel was used to Severus barking orders when it came to quick prep, because his friend had him working at a frenzied pace to make sure that the ingredients were done perfectly the first time with Gabriel's cooking skills put to good use.

Liquid Luck was hellishly difficult to make for the best master, and the amount that could be made was rather small for the amount of work put into it.

The ingredients were best if used fresh and added almost immediately, but most masters just prepped it beforehand and added it when needed.

Severus trusted Gabriel to get the ingredients ready immediately and to hand them over without contaminating the rest with the knife. A common mistake made when brewing.

Gabriel was already planning to make a killing with his self-sterilizing knives that were enchanted to clean off the last ingredient the second the knife left it. Slughorn had been very impressed with the idea, and the Runes teacher had been thrilled for such a practical application for her subject that everyone could appreciate.

He planned to only make them available to serious potions masters.

Finally the potion was left to stew for an hour and Gabriel sagged into the arm chair.

They had been given the run of the perfectly cleaned potions lab in the Black family home when Orion heard what they were being told to brew.

Sirius had left long ago to visit James, and Regulus knew better than to go near Severus when he was in full potion-frenzy.

The last time Sirius tried to sabotage one of their potions by spiking his magic at their cauldron (the rune scheme only blocked physical objects from getting near their cauldron, not magic) Severus had almost literally bitten his head off.

Ten minutes before their hour break was up, Severus and Gabriel went over the next series of ingredients before the feverish pace renewed.

By the end of the week, the two were exhausted, but very pleased.

The liquid luck would simmer for the next four days and after that it would take three hours to cool before it was useable. No one wanted to down a boiling hot potion after all.

* * *

Severus and Gabriel waited patiently at the potion master's guild after Orion dropped them off.

Slughorn came out practically giddy!

"Full marks! They said it was the strongest liquid luck they had ever seen in their life!"

Severus preened as Gabriel let loose a sigh of open relief. He could care less about gaining his mastery early...all he ever cared about was the pride he took in making a successful potion and the look of open joy in his friend's face at proving he was good at something. There was a reason why he never said a word about Severus' habit of being a bit bitchy when it came to getting a potion right.

He had seen him at his worst dealing with things he hated... children.

Severus took the badge of the potion master's guild and looked at it with open happiness. Gabriel grinned at his friend and tried not to laugh at how silly he looked trying to find the best place to pin his shiny new badge.

"Well?" said Walburga.

Severus and Gabriel showed off the badges. She looked very pleased.

"What's the big deal about those?" said Sirius snidely.

"No more potions lessons. We get an extra free period every Friday to use for our own projects," said Gabriel curtly.

Sirius looked irritated. His potion had blown up and he _knew_ he had gotten a bad mark.

"So did you keep any of the potion they made you brew?"

"We got to keep the rest of it. We were only required to turn in two small vials of it, and it made fifteen," said Gabriel.

It had been a larger batch than any one had ever gotten without the use of time turners, and they had to assure the examiners they didn't have one when turning it in. After seeing them work as a tag-team to make the potion, they had given them the badges without a word.

"What exactly did they have you brew?" asked Sirius.

"After what we were told it did, I don't feel comfortable telling you. Needless to say it was infinitely worse than trying to brew polyjuice," said Gabriel groaning in memory of Hermione's bitching about him not cutting it the way she liked.

"You've brewed polyjuice?" said Orion curious.

"With a rather cranky first gen who disliked the way I cut up the ingredients when I was twelve. In a bathroom no less," deadpanned Gabriel.

Severus, who had seen that particular memory, had winced from it.

"That girl has no real skill at potions, let alone any room to criticize. She made several mistakes brewing it, and it's a miracle it worked," he said.

Gabriel had given him the memory as a joke, and had been surprised at how horrified Severus had been at the result.

Apparently the one he brewed second year was just _barely _acceptable. According to him, the only reason it had was because Gabriel had known what he was doing when he did the prep work and she got lucky.

"I'm fairly sure it was her obsessive studying habits and her overly long assigned papers that allowed her to pass the class," said Gabriel.

He had tried to explain to Hermione that the teachers were so tired of grading papers and that while some might enjoy her enthusiasm in homework, most hated it.

They were paid to make sure that the children knew the basic gist of what they were trying to teach, not to read the damn papers a thousand times in different words.

The teachers loved Gabriel because he usually left them witty comments to make them laugh while they graded it. There was a reason why he had the highest marks in the year.

* * *

Gabriel was eating breakfast when he got a floo message from Shanks.

"_Loki? You available?"_

"What's up Shanks?"

"_I might have bitten off more than I can chew over here. I need an extra fist or two to help me out. And could you possibly hurry?"_

Gabriel set his fork down and looked at him.

"Exactly what the hell did you do?" he said in exasperated amusement.

"_I may have insinuated that one of these idiot Death Eater's mother had mated with a particularly slow witted flobberworm," _said Shanks unrepentant.

Gabriel's eye twitched.

"You are so owing me for this. Give me a second to tell Orion where I'm heading... where the hell are you anyway?"

Shanks told him, and aside from raising an eyebrow in amusement Orion said nothing.

Once Gabriel saw what Shanks was dealing with, he gave the red-haired Ravenclaw a particularly annoyed glare.

"You said that you had insulted _one_ Death Eater, not thirty," said Gabriel.

Shanks gave him a grin back.

"You came!"

"Why the hell didn't you tell me exactly how many people you angered?" asked Gabriel glaring.

"Would you have come if I had?"

"I would have brought an extra hand," he said with a grit of his teeth.

"You two girls done chit-chatting?" barked one of the Death Eaters.

Gabriel gave Shanks a more vicious look and stated flatly "You are officially my bitch for the next school year."

Shanks laughed, fully anticipating Gabriel to owe him when this was all said and done.

Then again, he had only heard of the fist fight with James and the others second hand, not seen Gabriel fight without a wand. The fact he knew how to lay them out without any spells had been the reason why he had called him in the first place.

_Four hours later..._

Shanks and Gabriel were leaning against a bar top while the owner poured them some rum.

"You are a complete ass. What part of that was watching my back?" bitched Gabriel.

He was nearly brained by a piece of chair because Shanks had gotten too into his fight.

"Hey, I covered you didn't I?"

"You are still going to be my personal monkey for the year, I hope you realize that."

Shanks grinned in response. He hoped Gabriel would forget that bit.

"Where did you learn how to dodge like that?"

"My cousin was often encouraged to beat the ever living shit out of me growing up. I learned it was easier to run like hell than to deal with it. Dodging I fully blame bludgers," said Gabriel.

"Any chance you would be interested in joining my crew once we graduate? I already got a chef, a navigator and a really good sword master."

"I would say no, but chances are brewing potions and running a comic shop will put me to sleep. I'll ask Fury later."

Shanks grinned even wider.

"But you're paying for the rum," said Gabriel.

Shanks took a good look at the alcohol Gabriel was drinking and winced. More so when he got a second bottle to go.

Perhaps calling in Gabriel had been a bad idea...

"Where'd you get the rum?" asked Regulus an hour later.

"Shanks. Idiot angered a whole group of Death Eaters and called me to help him fight them off. He's now my personal bitch for the next year," said Gabriel flatly.

"Isn't that the one hundred galleon bottle? The one where you can make some money back by selling the bottle to collectors?"

"And your point is?"

Regulus laughed on his way out.

* * *

Severus didn't even bat an eye when Gabriel told him about his little rescue of the red-haired idiot.

"I've seen you fight. Frankly I'm more surprised you took so long," he said flatly.

"It gets even better. Shanks is now my personal monkey for the year, and he was so impressed with how I fought that he offered a spot on his 'crew'," said Gabriel amused.

To Gabriel's open surprise, Severus didn't look irritated with the offer. Instead he looked interested.

"You're actually interested?"

"Travel the world, collect the freshest ingredients without having to pay or wait for a shipment, and best of all an actual chance for adventure?" Severus said, shaking his head, "I'd be a fool to turn that down immediately."

Seeing Gabriel's original adventures had come as an eye opener. He didn't want to become that bitter old man teaching children he hated under Dumbledore's thumb.

* * *

_In a remote part of Europe..._

Voldemort was PISSED. Thanks to Gabriel Black, his forces were whittling away to the worst dregs of the magical world.

How had he known about his heritage?

And another thing, why did the goblins claim one of his had killed the boy's family? He barely knew him outside of his rage at the brat telling everyone the truth about his mother.

So here he was in Russia nowhere-land trying to find more thugs to make up for the pure bloods who had started dropping out of the ranks before they could be fully initiated. He had counted on the Malfoy's contribution to his cause to help pay for some of the others and supplies, but the second Lucius learned he was a half-blood son of a squib and a muggle (never mind that it was from Slytherins heritage) he had dropped him like a dungbomb about to go off.

He was less than pleased at having to scrape the bottom of the barrel for minions.

Had he known that one of the people he had fully planned to forcefully recruit (Shanks) had called Gabriel in to end a group of thirty of his best spell casters without using any magic, he would have been even angrier.

Spotting a rather seedy bar that had plenty of voices coming from it, he walked in with an offer.


	12. Chapter 12

Gabriel picked up his latest school owl and slowly opened the scroll.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he read the results, though it took him a moment to realize what the potions one meant.

"What the hell does 'M' stand for?" said Sirius, looking over his shoulder.

"Mastery," said Orion, "They changed it after the two of them became the most junior members of the guild."

Severus and Gabriel were the youngest potion masters in over a century. Usually one had to get an above perfect score in NEWTs before they were even considered, but Slughorn's recommendation helped them skip that.

Orion looked at Sirius' scores, and his face became a frown.

"They had better improve by next semester, or you're not getting any allowance for Hogsmeade for the year," said Orion in warning.

Gabriel had managed to mend the bridge between Sirius and his family (most of it had stemmed from Walburga's obsession with pure blood histories and dealing with the war at the time) but that didn't mean Sirius _enjoyed_ living with his family that often.

Gabriel brought up a list of potion's masters the world over. Some of them were nixed right off the bat because of their history and their apprentices had complained of abuse.

But there was one that had caught his eye rather strongly.

"Cologne of the Amazon tribe. Applicants must be decent fighters and able to handle hand-to-hand combat, pay for travel fees are part of the apprenticeship, must at least understand basic Chinese... Warning, village is located near cursed springs?" read Gabriel.

Walburga, listening in, grinned. That particular Amazon tribe was full of warrior women, some of them pure bloods. And the cursed springs were more of an annoyance than anything.

On the plus side, it would solve the dilemma of what to do with Gabriel's match up. The Amazons in that village believed in the mistress solution, or what they called the Heaven and Earth solution which allowed for multiple wives. So what if the girl in question was a foreigner?

Eventually Gabriel made a list of prospective teachers for him and his friend, and went upstairs to share them.

The only one they could agree on was the woman from China, mostly because going would also insure that they learned more than just potions. The Amazons were a noted tribe of strong women who specialized in martial arts, and it was so far away from England that the chances of running into anyone they knew were remote.

And Severus was all for getting as far away from the Marauders as possible.

Plus there was every chance they would end up with someone who could totally kick their arses for them. Say what you want about Gabriel, there were times he was extremely lazy.

"So what do you say? We write to this Cologne woman and ask what her requirements for apprenticeship are?" asked Gabriel.

"It has to be better than dealing with the idiots here in England."

Gabriel's owl Hedwig got a lot of exercise that summer as she went from Ireland, China, Australia, to even as far as Japan and America with letters to possible potion masters.

There were five people the boys picked who could take them both as apprentices, since they did their best work together, and only two of the teachers declined right off the bat. That only meant Ireland was taken out of the equation for now.

However the one in China sounded like their best option at this moment, mostly because it had easy access to several rare potion ingredients, it was out of the way so they could use some magic, and the only real issue was that there were a series of cursed springs about ten miles from the village itself.

But from what Gabriel had read of them, they were less of an issue and more of a general nuisance.

Though it would be interesting to see if Narcissa would join them. Gabriel had noticed she had started to show real interest in Severus since last year, and the Blacks were now reconsidering the offer from the Malfoy family to marry her to Lucius.

However it was always a toss-up on who Gabriel would marry, seeing as how he didn't want to accidentally become one of his classmate's father.

Remus sat with Gabriel and the other prefects, mostly because his friends had been shunning him all summer. Sure, he still stayed around them, but it wasn't the same after he had defended Gabriel in front of them.

At least he knew that Gabriel's group would at least let him join if the Marauders didn't get a real wake up call from what they had planned for this year.

They even had a codename already prepared for him.

Remus would be Bruce Banner aka Hulk. Severus had thought it fitting considering what he was.

"Alright ladies and gents, we've had a great year last time. But we're going to ramp it up. First off, any requests for pranks on the Marauders barring Remus here?"

"I have one, actually it's more a question," said Lily.

"Shoot."

"Are you the one behind the mass detentions they had last year?" asked Lily. Everyone turned to stare at Gabriel.

Bellatrix snickered evilly.

"Can I tell them? Please?" she begged.

"Can I have a sworn statement from each of your swearing not to blow my fun?"

Everyone raised their wands and swore not to mention it outside the room.

Gabriel grinned...then did a perfect mimicry of Sirius Black's voice from where Lily was sitting. Needless to say everyone was impressed. Shanks in particular was cracking up.

"Coincidentally, I think I should warn you that earlier this summer I helped Shanks out with something and he is now my personal monkey for the rest of the year until he finds a way to pay me back. So if he happens to go on a potions run for me and Fury, that's why," said Gabriel grinning.

Shanks cursed.

"I was hoping you'd forgotten about that," he whined, "You made me pay for two one hundred galleon bottles of rum you jerk!"

"You're the idiot who thought insulting a bunch of inbred morons who worked for that two-bit hack Voldemort was a smart move, and then neglected to warn me I would be walking into a thirty-strong group of Death Eaters in a damn bar!"

Everyone watched amused as the two argued back and forth.

"Wait, so Gabriel came to your rescue?"

"Dumbass said that a Death Eater's mother had mated with a flobberworm, pissed them all off, then had the gall to call me without warning me about how many there were. So yes, I was a bit pissed," said Gabriel.

That got a good laugh from the boys.

"Now, I do have one suggestion for the Quidditch games this year," said Gabriel, getting back on track.

"And what's that?" asked Shanks.

"This. I don't know about you, but I'm sick of the half-assed cheating in the game. Let's use sex appeal people!"

In his hands was a cheerleading outfit, though the skirt was only an inch shorter than the usual girl's outfit so they wouldn't raised too big of a fuss. The top was also rather conservative. It showed the top of the bust and that was it. If the girls wanted to make it shorter that was up to them.

Surprisingly very few raised any objections.

"And why are we adding cheerleaders to the game?" asked Lily curiously.

"Equalizing the gender bias in the game. Besides, the only real athletic club in the entire school is the Quidditch teams, and while I might play a pick-up game or two I think we need something to get everyone's blood pumping. Each outfit will come with charms to repel the bludgers before they even get close, and we'll have a strict 'no harming the eye-candy' rule. Besides, how many of you are sick and tired of all the outdated school uniforms we're forced to wear year after year?"

"I get ya... Let's show some skin for a change and rile up the old codgers!" said Shanks.

"If it were anyone else I would be against it...but this is rather conservative for something a boy picked out," said Lily, picking up the outfit.

"Plus we might have the fun of seeing Sirius and James crash into each other during a game if the girl's rile them up enough. I don't know about you but I think they need to be taken down a peg at least," said Gabriel.

Everyone nodded in agreement. James and Sirius had been getting out of control since last year, though the mass detentions curtailed some of the more destructive pranks they had planned.

And this year, Gabriel intended to break them of their bad habit of bullying once and for all. He _hated_ bullies, and if it wasn't for the fact James was his father, he would have hexed him from the get go.

It was the start of the year, and as Gabriel had planned from the get-go, James was targeting him specifically.

Gabriel had extensive knowledge on bullies. He had to, what with Dudley being a fat idiot pig. While James was admittedly smarter than Dudley ever was, he was still a bully. And if there was one thing bullies hated it was to be outclassed and challenged outright.

And Gabriel had just sent him a big challenge last year by claiming he would get the head boy position and not James.

If James ever wanted to get Lily's attention, head boy would go a long way to doing it. It would mean the teachers believed him responsible enough to handle the power it would give him.

It started out innocently enough. There was a gender-switching potion in Gabriel's food.

Gabriel knew the potion was there, he just didn't give a damn. As Regulus had noted years ago, Gabriel made for a disturbingly hot woman.

Seeing the two idiots snickering at the change, the other Slytherins took Gabriel's queue and acted normally. Gabriel was the official leader of the snakes since last year. So long as he didn't say anything about it, they would do nothing.

Besides, he had already outlined his plan for the year. He was going to give Jame and Sirius a major wake-up call and part of that included being targeted specifically by the Marauders for the majority of the year.

Because he had been through much worse when the entire school hated him, he was going to turn public opinion against James and Sirius. That would give Slytherin some much needed slack from the other houses and hopefully the teachers (barring Dumbledore and McGonagall) as well.

It would be a case of 'poor me, I'm being picked on by the big bad lions'.

Flitwick raised an eyebrow at the change, but a quick word and he warned the other teachers. It was easier to simply roll with the punches than get mad at every little thing.

From there the gloves were off.

Gabriel found himself pranked every day for a month after he laid down the gauntlets for the Marauders. James was determined to break the snake that challenged him and win that head boy position.

"Remind me again why you're letting them do this?" asked Severus.

"Step one, I get them to target me. Easy enough to accomplish...I just tempt James with the coveted head boy position. Step two, the school slowly turns away from the Gryffs and onto us. Seeing me not react to their increasingly cruel pranks should be good enough. Step three is you start to look into Remus' condition as a way to get back at Sirius and James. As far as they are aware, you don't know about his issue."

"What's the next step?"

"If I remember right, the first time around you wanted to know where Remus went every full moon. Sirius told you how to get into the Whomping Willow, and you nearly got your face chewed off by a half-grown werewolf. Needless to say you hated them ever since. Now since we're almost done with the Wolfsbane potion hopefully we can get it to Remus the night before to insure no accidents happen. After that we'll wait until after the year ends and then give those idiots a real wake-up call using the fake aurors supplied by Charlus and the others in on our plan. We make sure that they get the point of the message, then Remus shows up at the Gryffindor table the next welcoming feast."

"Cruel, but to the point," said Severus approvingly, "But why can't you just tell them who you are and avoid all that hassle?"

"Because the last thing I need is Dumbledore aware of who I really am. Thanks to the fact my hair and eye color changed, no one's figured out the truth outside the Blacks. And I'm betting Sirius has long forgotten who I really am by now. If he hasn't, the fidelius will insure that he can't tell anyone anyway."

Remus couldn't believe he was stuck playing the bad guy in all this mess.

First he had to go behind his friend's backs just to wake them up without hurting them, and to top it all off the only one being even _remotely_ honest was a bloody Slytherin!

It had all started last year when Gabriel openly challenged James to do his best to get the Head Boy spot. Something that was actually rather laughable because he hadn't even made prefect once.

Then during the summer Gabriel came to visit him with a rather odd and if he had to admit to himself, terrifying solution to a growing problem.

Gabriel planned to force James and Sirius to grow up and see reality before it got someone killed.

Remus would normally be all for that...after all, he was sick of being considered a bully by proxy. But it was the way he planned to go about it that scared him.

Gabriel was going to fake him almost biting Severus and then 'kill' him with a few of Charlus' werewolf friends in auror clothing right after sixth year and make the two realize what they were doing was wrong.

Normally Remus would doubt this would work, but Gabriel had decided to show real trust in him by telling him something he had always suspected but never dared to confirm.

Gabriel was James' son from a few decades in the future. He had always wondered why the two of them smelled similar, after all, that mostly happened with close relatives even if they hadn't been around each other.

Gabriel placed him under a fidelius charm and offered to do the same with Remus' condition.

Considering it would mean more protection for him in case his secret got out, Remus had accepted the offer.

Hearing how the future would turn out if someone didn't do something, Remus reluctantly agreed to play the bad guy for a while if only to make his friends grow up.

Besides...it would be a nice change of pace being on an island during the summer trying to help his fellow werewolves.


	13. Chapter 13

Gabriel's plan to get James and Sirius to target him almost exclusively worked well. A little too well, for Severus' comfort.

James still believed Lily liked Gabriel, though in reality they were more friends than anything. After her father's heart attack Lily's personality had slowly shifted to something more acceptable. She was still the prettiest girl in school, but she no longer targetted the other girls when she was having a bad day.

Frankly, he preferred the change. She wasn't perfect, but she was more tolerable now.

However what James and Sirius failed to notice was that their single-minded determination to make Gabriel break so that James could slip into the head boy spot had earned them the ire of the entire school.

Nearly everyone liked Gabriel. Those that didn't were usually people who would join Voldemort in a heart beat. Or they were the Marauders.

So the fact that they were trying to force him to back down from the challenge he presented to James to get such a coveted spot... they weren't winning any popularity points.

"How can you stand it?" asked Narcissa. It was halfway through the term and Gabriel had been the target of more pranks than even Severus had his first four years.

Gabriel diffused or redirected the worst ones and ignored the more irritating ones.

He had been turned into a girl or sported Gryffindor colors more times this month alone than he cared to count.

He wondered how they would react if they knew he originally _had_ been a Gryffindor and not a Slytherin.

"I've had worse," said Gabriel.

Like second year, when the entire school turned against him like he was some sort of mass murderer just because he was a parselmouth. Or most of his childhood when he had been shunned because he happened to be Dudley's favorite punching bag.

"Much worse."

"Well this is getting out of hand. Why aren't the teachers stopping this?" said Bellatrix. She might not like Gabriel, but even she had to admit that he was the best Slytherin in the entire house.

"Don't forget... Dumbledore is the biggest damn hypocrite in the school. He might preach equality between the first gens and the pure bloods, but he's firmly a pure blood supporter so long as they worship him as the next coming of Merlin. Not to mention all those detentions he threw out last year because of my prank against the Marauders," said Gabriel.

James and Sirius damn near spent every weekend in detention last year thanks to Gabriel's harmless prank. When they weren't in detention they spent several days trying to get out of dates that he accepted for them using polyjuice.

(Though that was mostly Sirius. James he just put on a color charm, hid his scar and then mimicked his father's voice.)

"We have to do something!" insisted Narcissa.

Gabriel sighed. He could see right away that if he didn't do something this would get out of hand too fast.

"What if I could get James into some serious trouble before Hogsmeade this weekend, and not with my usual prank? Would that get you all to calm down?"

The Slytherins nodded. They weren't going to take the pranks done to Gabriel without a real fight. He was the only one of them who could get the teachers to back off.

"Do you want to know why I'm letting them play their pranks without responding?" said Gabriel. It was time for part of his plan to come to light anyway, if only to get the others to calm down.

"A Black doesn't do anything without a plan," said Bellatrix.

"Well my plan is to take Gryffindor down a peg and bring Slytherin's reputation out of the gutter."

"Explain, now," commanded Narcissa.

"How do you think the rest of the school feels about the nicest Slytherin taking all this crap from James and Sirius? I mean who among the first years or above likes them outside of Gryffindor?" he asked.

No one said a word.

The Marauders had been popular until Gabriel appeared and started to steal the show. It had been slow at first, but right now the students liked him more than they did Sirius or James. Gabriel wasn't cruel for cruelty's sake. He wasn't a snide pure blood like Lucius. He was genuinely nice to people, and he even helped them without asking for anything in return.

He alone had stood up to Sirius and James, and he went out of his way to protect the younger years from them. The fact he had dared to prank the Marauders and had yet to be caught for it only made him more popular.

"Now, we all know that Sirius and James don't like me. Hell, they barely tolerate my presence. The only reason they don't outright hex me in the halls is because I haven't given them a reason to target me for such behavior. However, their actions this year and most of last haven't exactly gained them any points with the other houses. How do you think they feel about this rampant bullying going on?" asked Gabriel.

One third year bravely spoke up.

"I heard Hufflepuff doesn't really like Gryffindor much anymore because they've become a house of mean bullies."

"Ravenclaw doesn't respect them as much either," said another.

"Let's face it, Gryffindor is becoming the new Slytherin in terms of how people think about them. And I don't think Dumbledore will be happy once he figures out what I'm really planning."

"What is the plan?" demanded Narcissa.

"A much needed wake-up call. I plan to give Sirius and James a cold slap of reality about how their actions have consequences. Now, none of you will be in on this, because the less people know about what I'm planning the better. But the main theme is that they will get a dose of reality about how the real world works and hopefully that should clear up some of this bullshit that's going on. However, this all relies on everyone keeping their cool this year."

"What do you need us to do?" asked Regulus. He was all for getting Gryffindor down a peg.

"First and foremost we have to keep our cool this year. I can handle most of what those idiots can dish out, and if they start to get too out of hand I'll deal with it. Remember, I have something planned for this summer that will really rattle them. The last thing I need is for Slytherin to get into a hexing contest with the lions."

Gabriel outlined what he wanted them to do. Some of it might be harder for the pure bloods, but the end result was that Gryffindor would be taking the hit when it came to the other houses.

It was hard to complain when the Slytherins started to be nicer to the first gens than the Gryffindors were.

* * *

Gabriel's saint-like patience seemed to snap briefly after the Marauders forced Remus into handing him a prank along with his books. The next morning the first year lions were screaming "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! THEY'RE LOOSE!"

Remus, thankfully, was in the area where the clock gears were safely away from the horde of cats. Gabriel had helpfully warded the area against felines and given him a camera. He was snickering as he caught a few of the cats trying to eat Peter and one humping James' leg. Sirius was fighting off his set.

Severus walked up with a laugh.

"Best prank ever. And here comes McGonagall..." said Severus grinning.

"JAMES POTTER! DETENTION!" she yelled.

Remus blinked.

"How the hell did Gabriel convince her it was James?"

"Remember who Gabriel is? All he did was put in contacts that turned his eyes brown and cut his hair like James and then he used a flea bath charm on every cat in the castle along with a catnip spell on their clothes. And I mean _every _cat."

Remus choked back a laugh. Everyone knew McGonagall was a cat animagus.

James was less than amused.

* * *

Gabriel nodded to Severus who started on phase three of the plan. Convincing the Marauders that Severus didn't know about Remus being a werewolf.

The majority of the school was firmly behind Gabriel at this point after the incident when Peter tripped Severus on the stairs and he nearly broke his neck. Narcissa had barely managed to stop the fall before he did more than break his arm in time.

It was easy enough. Severus simply left books on how to identify werewolves where Sirius or James could find them.

It wasn't until a week later that Sirius finally picked up on what Severus was reading about long enough to figure out that the snake didn't know about Remus just yet.

And so a plan slowly hatched in his mind.

* * *

_In the Gryffindor dorms..._

James and Peter stared at Sirius incredulous. Pranking Gabriel was one thing, but this? This was extreme even for them.

"I don't know... if Remus bit Severus the aurors would come and kill him. They're really strict about that," said James_._

"Yeah, but think about it! If that snake nearly got bit by Remus, then they might back off and James would get the spot! We all know Dumbledore's partial to you James," said Sirius.

James frowned.

Even he knew that some of their pranks went too far, but the way Dumbledore covered them up was odd.

And to be honest that was sort of worrying him. James had heard things about the headmaster, something about how he batted for the home team rather than the opposing. And the last thing he wanted was to be in a position where he was indebted to the man.

"I don't know Sirius...what if Remus accidentally kills him instead of biting him?" asked Peter.

"If Remus killed him by accident, then they most certainly will kill him," said James.

Sirius pouted. He wanted to get back at Gabriel for half the crap he had gone through during the summer. He had a feeling the snake was behind the recent bout of detentions, but had no way to prove it.

And he couldn't blow Gabriel's secret to James, because he had learned that the teen had used a charm to make it impossible to do so without his permission.

* * *

"I'm bored," said Gabriel suddenly.

"Tough," said Severus. He had an order from the goblins and Gabriel had already prepped the ingredients for him.

"How long for that potion to be ready?"

"A week, and the only reason they gave us this commission is because it was cheaper to hire rookies like us and their personal potions master fell sick," said Snape.

Actually he had been experimenting with left over ingredients and exploded, but the goblins weren't going to tell two sixth-year Slytherins about that.

Gabriel tossed a random rubber ball he had transfigured out of scrap parchment at the wall, annoying Severus.

"Go play in the Chamber with that damn thing if you're that bored!" he said crossly.

Gabriel thought about that, perked up at the amount of fun he could have tossing this thing around randomly and seeing it bounce off the walls, and decided it was a fine idea.

However he was going to bring a peace offering for the basilisk in case it was awake.

Fortunately no one saw him levitate an entire cow through the Forbidden Forest entrance.

Gabriel was bored, and he knew the snake was still in hibernation...but after getting hit in the head for the fifth time by the rubber ball he figured he might as well give the snake the cow.

_~Speak to me Slytherin, Greatest of the Hogwarts Four!~_ he hissed.

The relief opened and the snake slithered out slowly. Gabriel made it a point not to look at the thing so he kept his eyes closed.

_~You are not the false Master from before.~_

_~I know, but I'm bored and I figured a peace offering between us would be a better idea than me trying to make you follow my commands. The cow is yours by the way, still good to hunt with.~_

The basilisk hissed and stared at the cow, who fell over dead. It wasn't long before the bovine became a rather large bulge inside the serpent.

_~You're much more polite than the false Master was. He always wanted me to eat the hatchlings if I killed them.~_

_~He's a hypocrite and an idiot. Frankly so long as you don't cause trouble or try to eat me, I could care less if you wander around the Forbidden Forest eating the Acromantula. Why did Slytherin leave a basilisk such as yourself behind anyway?~_

_~Last resort defense. No one expects a deadly snake to show up and defend the castle,~_ explained the serpent.

_~Is there anyway I could have my eyes open while you're out? I don't want to fall over dead because I happened to look the wrong way.~_

He heard the serpent hiss in amusement, and it knocked him over with it's tail. He opened his eyes on instinct and came face-to-face with the Basilisk's eyes. Nothing happened.

_~All of my kind have a secondary eyelid that neutralizes the power of our eyes. You didn't think he would leave a deadly serpent in a school full of hatchlings without it having a way to wander around with harm did you?~_

_~So did he give you a name?~_

The basilisk had to have a name, otherwise it was little more than an object.

_~Master tried to find one, but I didn't like the ones he kept coming up with.~_

_~Are you a boy or a girl?~_

_~Male.~_

_~Then from now on your name is Jörmungandr, or Jor for short.~_

_~Jörmungandr?~_

_~The World Serpent, and the second son of Loki the Norse God of Fire and Trickery. Norse mythology stated that when he was born, Odin tossed him onto Midgard where he fell into the ocean and kept growing until his body was so big that he could literally encompass the Earth simply by biting his own tail. He's also considered a good example of the Ouroboros symbol which is commonly used in Alchemy.~_

The newly named Jor hissed. It liked that name.

_~Another interesting fact is that Jörmungandr is considered one of the patron gods of snakes, according to my black mamba Tiamat.~_

If the basilisk had been a female he would have named it Medusa.


	14. Chapter 14

Severus stared at his friend for exactly five seconds before he slapped the back of his head.

"OW!"

"You let the basilisk out of it's hibernation and told it..."

"He. It's a male, told me so himself," said Gabriel.

"Fine, him, that he could go and decimate the Acromantulas in the forest so long as he left the 'hatchlings' alone?"

"He said I was nicer than the 'false Master' who showed up a few years ago, since I had the common sense not to try and force him to kill people when he was supposed to be a last resort to defend the castle."

"False master?"

"Riddle."

"Ah. Well in any case I need someone to test the potion for the goblins so we can get paid. And thanks to your recent bout of Gryffindor-level stupidity, guess who is now going to do it?"

Gabriel stuck his tongue out at him, before he impishly reminded his best friend "You do realize that's less of an insult considering I was originally _in_ Gryffindor right?"

Severus just slapped him again. It seemed the older Gabriel got, the more immature he became. It was baffling.

Gabriel took out his athame and cut into his finger. A few drops later and he was confused.

"Did you brew this right?"

"Why?"

"There's two extra vaults that weren't on the test from before," said Gabriel. He went into his trunk and pulled out a familiar Gringotts scroll. He occasionally killed time looking up his own family in the Hogwarts library...or borrowing them from Shanks. It was nice to have the rumor that Ravenclaws had their own private library confirmed actually.

Severus compared the two scrolls, and indeed there were two new ones.

"How long ago did you do this test?"

"Right after I showed up."

"We need to confirm this with the goblins..." said Severus. He would never sell the potion to them if it had been incorrectly brewed.

* * *

A few days later Gabriel met with his account manager to see what the hell happened.

"I don't know how Mr. Barton, but you've been declared by magic as the new heir of Slytherin," said the goblin in disbelief.

"Please tell me I've gone temporarily insane or that you are joking," deadpanned Gabriel.

The goblin held up the records. There, under the name Slytherin was Gabriel Black. To the amusement of the goblin Gabriel started banging his head against the desk.

"Dammit. It skipped a year. Why, why does this always happen to me?!"

"Have you done or said anything that would cause this vault to react to your magical signature?"

Gabriel thought about that for a moment before he really started cursing.

"The basilisk. I gave it permission to roam the Forbidden Forest so long as it left the students and Hagrid alone and even gave it a name. That's the only explanation!" he said.

"A basilisk? How old?"

"He's the monster in the Chamber of Secrets. How old do you think he is?" said Gabriel annoyed.

The goblin was silent for a moment before he carefully asked "Do you think it..."

"He. The basilisk is a male, told me so himself," said Gabriel.

"He... would let us milk him for venom?"

"I could ask him if he wouldn't mind relieving some of his fang ache. Tiamat's always complaining about that," said Gabriel, before his inner-Slytherin kicked in.

"What's the going price range for basilisk venom?"

"Fifty galleons a vial," said the goblin immediately.

"Forty-seven and we get copies of any books in the goblin archives that are allowed out of the goblin nation," said Gabriel.

"Deal."

The two shook on it.

* * *

Dumbledore looked outside, stopped for a moment while his brain rebooted and took off running. It wasn't very fast, and he nearly broke his neck twice on the stairs.

There was a basilisk giving the first years rides around the castle grounds. Mostly Slytherins though.

"What is the meaning of this?!"

"Eh, Jor was tired of hunting the Acromantulas in the forest and when I mentioned that he could shield his eyes the some of the snakes wanted to see if he really was as long as I claimed...plus this way people can see he's not as dangerous as everyone believes," said Gabriel shrugging. He was the one who had made those hills for the serpent to slither over, to the delight of the first years.

Hagrid didn't mind the snake, though he did ask that he leave Aragog alone.

Apparently he had noticed the growing issue with the spiders because the Centaurs complained about it. Besides, Jor was big, vicious and deadly. Three things that Hagrid loved even if it was partially Jor's fault he had gotten expelled in the first place.

"Mr. Black, while I tolerate your pet snake this is going a bit too far!"

"Yeah, but Jor was already here. I simply asked him to keep his eyes off so he wouldn't hurt anyone," said Gabriel.

"What do you mean he was already here?!" said Dumbledore hysterically.

"Jor is the monster from the Chamber of Secrets. Honestly, couldn't you figure out from the way Myrtle died?" said Gabriel rolling his eyes.

Dumbledore stared, and by that time half the teachers were already outside with the students wondering what the fuss was about.

"Gabriel, I brought the... for the love of magic they aren't going to try and remove him are they?" said Severus exasperated.

"Considering he actually belongs in the school, I should hope not. Loki knows the Blacks would raise one hell of a stink if they tried," said Gabriel, taking one of the large vials from his friend.

Jor obligingly opened his mouth so that Gabriel could stab his fangs with the vials. Pale liquid came out.

"What are you doing?" asked Sirius, curious despite himself.

"Milking the venom. Snakes get fang ache if you don't remove it regularly, and Jor here has been stuck under the school for several hundred years at a time. Considering he's actually a last-resort measure in the event the school was attacked, I'm not surprised no one knew about him."

"Last resort defense measure?" repeated Dumbledore.

"Salazar Slytherin left an unnamed basilisk in his Chamber in the event that the school was attacked. Unfortunately his dispute with Gryffindor meant that he had been unable to add the tunnels that would give his snake free reign in the forest."

Which was a complete lie, but he wasn't going to tell them that.

"Be that as it may it is too dangerous to keep a snake this big in the school!"

"And the fact that Hagrid was expelled unjustly because some idiot set Jor on the students against his will? Besides, Jor is a Founder's Artifact."

"How can a snake be a Founder's Artifact?!" asked McGonagall incredulous.

"Um hello? Monster from the Chamber of Secrets? A known legend of the school? How does that not qualify as a founder's artifact?"

Gabriel was counting on the lack of logic in the wizards to pull this one over the idiots.

Fortunately he had a back up plan in the form of the School Governors who were coming to see the infamous Monster of the Chamber allowing the first years to ride it like a pet.

The moment Abraxus Malfoy saw the first years actually sitting on the things back and Gabriel being allowed to calmly remove the venom from it's fangs, he knew what the boy had in mind.

He hid a smirk at the cunning this boy showed, and the idea of one-upping the Headmaster.

* * *

Jor was rather pleased that he was allowed out of the Chamber. His former master would definitely like this boy, even if he was originally a lion, according to him.

Because he was labeled a "Founder's Artifact", he could stay and there was nothing the headmaster could do about it. Plus now he could finally eat something other than rats.

Not to mention the way Gabriel outwitted the Headmaster by selling off his venom to be put into the Slytherin account, which was now closed off to Dumbledore.

Seeing the children, Jor slithered up.

At this point mostly Slytherins rode on his back, but seeing the children cry out in laughter was something he never grew tired of. The third years looked at each other and shrugged.

It would be the talk of the castle that four _Gryffindor_ third years rode the snake that belonged to Salazar Slytherin.

* * *

Sirius was sick and tired of Gabriel getting all the attention. At this rate he would definitely make head boy for sure!

And of course there was the fact that Gabriel actually got one over on the headmaster earlier by setting the agreement that anything found in the Chamber itself would go to the Slytherin vaults.

What Dumbledore hadn't know was that Gabriel had been declared Slytherin's heir when he named the basilisk...and he learned the hard way when he went to get some of the books out of the vault only to find out that he had been blocked by the current heir.

Which was why Sirius planned to give Gabriel a taste of his own medicine. He was going to have Remus and Snape meet during a full moon night.

He had everything planned. He was going to tell Snape about the Whomping Willow during the exams, so that Gabriel wouldn't be around to stop him. Gabriel was helping the other students with their potions finals, mostly because he had been allowed to get out of the class since he had his mastery.

Now he just had to wait for the full moon.

* * *

Severus knew this was the defining moment of his school years. He added the last ingredient and for once it didn't blow up or go horribly wrong.

Tomorrow night was the full moon and Remus was hoping that this combination would be the winning one.

The biggest clue had been a comment made by Remus himself in the future about sugar making the potion useless for it's intended purpose. There were very few things sugar could render ineffective.

Before Remus tried it, Gabriel looked at the potion itself, as he remembered the scent very clearly, mostly because of how foul it had been.

Taking a deep whiff, Gabriel reeled back coughing.

"Did I get it wrong?" asked Severus.

"Worse, you got it right," he said trying to clear his nose. That was definitely the potion.

Remus took a deep breath, and in one go drank the potion. His expression was hilarious as he started to gag.

"Dear Merlin, that is foul!"

"No adverse side effects. The only way to tell is if you don't react to me being in the house after the transformation," said Gabriel.

"I don't have to drink this again do I?" asked Remus, shuddering at the taste.

"From what I recall, you only had to drink it once before the full moon and that was it. So hopefully not."

Remus grimaced at the thought of drinking the potion more than once a month.

"Just think, you'll be joining us in China for the summer while those idiots get a reality check. Hopefully our teacher will have a way to adjust the taste," said Gabriel.

Cologne had agreed to let Remus come to the village, provided he stay in the area where the local werewolves ran free during the full moons. When Gabriel explained what they were doing, she had said it was a very good lesson for bullies who needed to wake up.

* * *

_A few hours later..._

Remus felt the pain of transformation, but this time there was something different about it.

Seeing a very human Gabriel standing there, he realized that for once he could think straight. Gabriel took out a squeak toy, something Moony had an unhealthy fascination for according to Sirius, and squeezed. Remus found it amusing, but that was it.

Gabriel tossed it, and Remus kept his attention on Gabriel. Gabriel then pulled out a stick, but instead of tossing it, he poked him. Something Moony would have bit him for because he hated being poked like that.

"Did it work?"

Remus nodded.

"Fury will be happy to hear about that. At least now we have a viable starting point," said Gabriel, turning into his secondary primary animal form. Remus had great fun chasing Gabriel around the house while he kept to the rafter snickering at him.

Sirius and James had detention tonight, which was why they weren't around.

"Well?"

"It worked. Remus was able to answer yes and no questions and wasn't interested in the squeaky toys at all."

"So when do we publish this?" asked Severus.

"After the year is over and Remus is 'killed'," said Gabriel. Seeing Severus look disappointed, he said "Think of it this way, you can now spend the rest of the year experimenting with basilisk venom?"

Severus perked up. He had been so focused on making the Wolfsbane potion that he hadn't been able to play with the basilisk venom at all.


	15. Chapter 15

This was it. The culmination of the hellish year Gabriel had thanks to the James and Sirius pranking the hell out of him. Slytherin was barely containing it's anger towards the two and Dumbledore, who did nothing about it. McGonagall might have been biased, but she also delivered detentions if she caught them at it.

Sirius had given information to Severus about the Whomping Willow tunnel, an area Severus knew lead straight to the Shrieking Shack.

Remus had taken the potion a few hours before, and was waiting for him with Gabriel who had a fake werewolf waiting for him.

James was unaware of the plan, but Gabriel hoped Sirius would be stupid enough to mention it.

When the night fell and Severus got the signal Remus had transformed, he slipped into the tunnel and waited.

Gabriel was the fake werewolf and they managed to put on quite a show running _from_ the Forbidden Forest making it look like Fenrir Greyback had been in the area. Severus was scolded, but he didn't mention a word about the tunnel or seeing Remus.

Gabriel sent word to Charlus about the incident, and that the potion would be published shortly after Remus was far from England for a bit.

Charlus and Dorea avoided the attack on their home because they were out coordinating the 'auror' appearance the first week of summer vacation.

As it was, Remus was going to be sent via portkey to where Gabriel and Severus were waiting.

* * *

It was James who spotted the aurors first.

"Can I help you?"

"We're looking for one Remus Lupin."

James looked confused. Remus was at his house today mostly because Charlus had said he could stay with them for a while since his aunt had kicked him out last week.

"Can I ask what this is about gentlemen?" asked Charlus.

"Sir we've had a report about a near-attack on a student at the school, and the only known werewolf in the vicinity is Mr. Lupin."

James suddenly realized what was going on. They were going to kill Remus!

Charlus kept his son back as they brought Remus out.

"What's going on?"

"They think you're the one who chased that damn snake out of the forest!" said James angrily.

Remus' eyes were wide, but his sense of smell told him all he needed to know.

These aurors were werewolves like him, meaning Gabriel was putting his plan to give James and Sirius a real wake up call into action.

Remus went outside and saw the wink the female 'auror' gave him. Inside the house James had called Sirius who was watching the show outside in horror.

The 'aurors' hit him with a spell and obscured the view outside while the replaced him with a body double. Remus was away from the Potter mansion before he got to see what they did to make the whole thing look real.

"So did the illusion spell we put up work?"

"Judging by the horrified looks on Sirius and James' faces, I would have to say yes," said Remus dryly. He really wished this wasn't necessary, but if it exposed whether or not James and Sirius were acting this way because of being dosed with a potion or under a spell, he would put up with it.

He was sick and tired of being stuck between the Avengers and the Marauders.

"Here's your translation amulet, and here is the portkey set to the werewolf area that activates once a month. Remember, the entire village already knows about your condition and about our potion... which reminds me, Fury, I've scheduled a brief trip next month to announce our Wolfsbane potion."

"Finally!"

In order to register a new potion, one had to schedule a month in advance and have one test subject to prove the thing worked. Considering the sensitive nature of the potion they were registering, Remus was considered subject zero. They would get another known werewolf to act as their patient when they licensed their potion.

Fortunately Severus kept meticulous notes on every attempt, so the guild couldn't claim he was stealing off someone else's work.

Even if he technically was remaking something his future self developed mostly out of spare time and a desire to get away from dealing with children all day.

* * *

Cologne looked like a goblin mixed with a hag. She was short, got around mostly by using her staff as a pogo stick (to Gabriel's open amusement) and had a very quirky sense of humor.

She also had a granddaughter who was turning six this year.

"I shall test your skills tomorrow. Please note that men are not exactly considered very highly in this village, so if you are sexist we will not get along."

"Clearly you have never been in Slytherin around the Black sisters. The things Narcissa wanted to do to Sirius and James..." said Severus shivering.

Not to mention how Lily reacted when she caught Sirius Black with some of her knickers. Dear lord the screams of pain still haunted him.

"And you?" asked Cologne of Remus. She knew Gabriel was very respectful to people, as he had been the one to write the initial letter to her.

"Ma'am, the very fact everyone knows what I am and isn't afraid of me is still hard to take. So long as I am able to be useful, I will try to respect your laws and rules... provided someone gets me a book on them," added Remus.

The old woman chuckled. Two polite boys and one who was already well trained to be afraid of getting on a woman's bad side. This might work out better than she hoped.

* * *

_In England_...

James was having an absolutely terrible summer. Remus was dead because of a case of mistaken identity and Sirius' stupid plan to get back at Gabriel, his parents had nearly been killed because of the Death Eaters, and for some reason he kept having bouts of apathy about what happened to his friend.

He knew that was something very, very wrong since he actually did care about Remus despite the fact that he had been hanging out with Gabriel more often.

Charlus immediately put him on a strict diet and had his food and drink monitored... Walpurga did the same for Sirius as a precaution and to her open surprise his behavior issues which Gabriel always complained about suddenly took a nose dive.

Someone had been potioning their children. And they were not happy.

Shortly after James was allowed out of the house, the first thing he did was owl Lily about what happened. His behavior, which had been very cruel and arrogant, was now more socially acceptable. He even reviewed his memories back before the incident and couldn't believe how much of an arrogant ass was before.

Sirius also lost some of his absolute dislike of anything Slytherin. Now he just found them annoying like any other Gryffindor. And after what happened to Remus he was going to make a formal apology to Gabriel and Severus in full view of the great hall once school started.

* * *

"What fresh hell is this?" asked Severus the second he saw what was in Gabriel's hands.

Remus took one look and declared loudly "I don't want to know, and frankly I want no part of it."

"Why?" asked Severus.

"Why what?"

"Why the hell do you have a pair of bagpipes and a kilt on?"

Gabriel had an evil grin, one that Severus usually associated with a Marauder's planning a new prank.

"You know McGonagall is Scottish right?"

"Yes, and?"

"Have you ever heard anyone actually _play_ bagpipes?"

Severus made a face. He had heard people play them badly.

"I'll take that as a yes. Now, if anyone asks I'm trying out a new hobby and once we get back to Hogwarts I can always blame McGonagall," said Gabriel.

Gabriel wanted revenge for first year, when McGonagall immediately turned the entire school against him just because he was out of bounds. Plus there was the fact she was already subtly against him now because he had joined Slytherin instead of Gryffindor.

So if he had to take up a new hobby as a subtle salute to McGonagall's heritage, then by Loki he was going to make everyone suffer for a prank.

He knew that walking around in a silver and green kilt was just icing on the cake.

"Why do I have the feeling this year is going to be hectic?"

"Have you ever heard of the infamous list of things that are not allowed at Hogwarts?"

"What list?"

Gabriel handed over a list from his time. The longer Severus went down, the higher his eyebrows went up.

"You have to be joking."

"It's our last year, and I want to go out with a bang. And outdo the Marauders," said Gabriel.

Remus poked his head in.

"Did I hear pranks and going out with a bang?"

"They won't forget us, that's for sure. Take a look."

Remus read the list, and the longer he went down the more amused his look got.

"James and Sirius can never see this list."

"You kidding? If things work out we'll be encouraging everyone to try and top each other off," said Gabriel.

"Don't you mean aiding and abetting?" asked Remus dryly.

"What's the difference?" said Gabriel flippantly. Remus laughed.

"So are you going to the cursed springs next week?"

"Elder Cologne has said that she'll shows us some of the more amusing ones, but if we fall in it's our own problem. Personally I want to find a certain one because I want to know the extent of the cursed springs' effects on people if they haven't been hit directly by the springs themselves," said Gabriel with a straight face.

"Bullshit. You just want to hit Dumbledore with a permanent prank and prove you're the superior prankster to your father," said Severus flatly.

"Guilty," said Gabriel grinning.

"I can't wait until we leave school and James finds out his own son pranked him for three years straight," said Remus snickering.

The look on James' face when he found out Gabriel's real name was originally Harry James Potter... he had gotten a camera for his birthday just to immortalize the moment, since it was clear Sirius had likely forgotten who Gabriel's father was.

* * *

"_Welcome to Jusenkyo. Remember, if you fall in it's your own fault,"_ said Cologne.

She lead them through the more interesting ones, and the ones most people fell in for one reason or another. She noticed Gabriel give the Drowned Girl spring a speculative look. Gabriel had no issues with turning female, as a minor prank potion by Severus proved once during dinner. He didn't even react to turning female.

So the idea that he would willingly and knowingly jump into the pool wasn't that surprising.

"_And this is the Spring of Drowned Wolf. To date only five people have fallen into this particular one."_

The Amazons kept meticulous records of how many people fell in. They had to, to keep the Chinese Ministry from trying to meddle in village politics. In exchange they helped diffuse certain springs which were too dangerous for most people to accidentally fall in, like the one of drowned werewolf.

Remus gave the pool an interested look, and wondered idly what would happen if a werewolf fell into that one.

He didn't notice the rock and tripped headfirst into the Spring of Drowned Wolf.

Gabriel saw the sopping wet tawny wolf walk out of the spring and winced.

Remus went a little ways away to shake off the water to avoid accidentally hitting anyone just in case.

"_Well, so much for avoiding the curse springs," _said Severus.

"_Who said anything about avoiding them?" _asked Gabriel impishly. Cologne had a pretty good idea what he had in mind, and so did Severus, if only because he knew Gabriel too well at this point.

That was the only reason he avoided getting hit when Gabriel did a freaking _cannonball_ into the Spring of Drowned Girl. His glare was pretty much on par with the one his 'future' self had given Harry when he was still in his own time.

"You are an ass of the highest caliber."

"Awww. You know you love me," said Gabriel with a flirtatious wink. Severus rolled his eyes, not even bothered by the fact Gabriel now had breasts.

There was a reason why his nickname was Loki, and not Hawkeye despite his freakish ability to see the snitch in broad daylight with the sun in his eyes.

A quick hit with hot water courtesy of a modified 'aquamenti' charm returned them to normal, though Remus went through a tough week as Moony settled more into his new cursed form rather than his werewolf state.

Gabriel once commented that Moony looked more like an unfinished wolf, one who had never completed the conversion from man to beast. It wasn't until full moon that he realized how...accurate...that comment had been.

Because they didn't know what effects the Jusenkyo curse could do to Moony, they couldn't administer the Wolfsbane potion. Remus had to be locked up just in case. He understood the reason why, but he certainly hadn't been happy about it.

The moon had nearly risen when he knocked over a jug of water, cold of course, and turned into his new cursed form.

And it wasn't until it was halfway up that he realized he could still think rationally. Sitting on the floor, Remus decided to ask his inner wolf what was going on. And he had a rather strong shock.

Moony had perfectly settled into his Jusenkyo cursed form. So much so that if he hadn't knocked over the water jug he would have retained his human form without transforming.

When he was let out, he spoke of it to Cologne who wanted this theory confirmed.

A fellow werewolf from a nearby pack offered to try the Jusenkyo curse himself...he was perfectly happy being a werewolf since he had been born to it, so he saw nothing wrong with being cursed to become a real one when wet.

The results were shocking, to say the least.

The moment the curse was temporarily reversed and he spoke to his inner werewolf, he found that the bloodlust and desire for humans had gone completely.

Apparently it was the fight for dominance between human and wolf that caused the entire issue in the first place.

Remus had inadvertently found a solution to the werewolf curse. Who knew the only thing those afflicted needed to do was jump into an ancient Chinese spring and become full wolves?


	16. Chapter 16

James was walking to Spooner's End with flowers and a sincere apology for Lily for his actions over the past six years.

Micheal Evans was an imposing figure, and James knew he had best be respectful, muggle or not.

It had come as a relief to find out that his affection for Lily Evans was genuine, not because of any potion or spell.

(Narcissa had said the same thing to her aunt Walpurga when she found her interest in Severus Snape was entirely her own.)

Fortunately for James, Gabriel had helped Charlus update his muggle wardrobe, pointing out what would be socially acceptable among the non-magical population without raising any eyebrows from the pure bloods. This included an increase in jeans, tee-shirts and ball caps rather than robes, dress gowns and conical hats.

Or in the case of Gabriel who wanted to poke a little fun at McGonagall a few tasteful kilts. Being so close to Scotland no one would do more than glance once at the pleated outfit before making the logical assumption.

Lily took one look at James, privately surprised he didn't look like a total idiot and asked "What do you want?"

"To apologize. It's come to our family's attention that someone has been dosing me with specific potions geared towards aggression and more violent behavior, as well as an irrational hatred of Slytherin. Remus tried for a long time to tell me to check with Madam Pomphrey about being drugged, but I never listened to him," said James.

"And where is he?"

"Dead. As far as I know anyway. There was an incident earlier this summer where Aurors came to our home investigating that werewolf attack and he was killed," said James. Lily noticed he seem genuinely broken up over that fact.

"So why come to me?"

"I want to apologize to Severus, and none of the... Avengers... are willing to believe me when I say that I was not entirely responsible for my actions during school," said James honestly.

Lily gave him a long searching look before she said "I believe you."

James had a look of stark relief on his face.

Before he could respond, Petunia walked in, took one look at Lily and James and sneered at them both. She reminded James of a muggle version of Narcissa Black.

"Not another one of you freaks," she said snidely.

"Back off Petunia. And where are you heading out to all dressed up?" asked Lily.

"I have a date with Vernon, if you must know."

Lily was about to make a snide comment in response when James, who had caught a look at Petunia's date, spoke up.

"You could do much better," he said.

Petunia and Lily stopped and looked at him.

"What?"

"James, Vernon is the only guy in the area who's ever asked my...sister...out on a date."

"I don't see why. She might be lanky, but if she hasn't hit her full growth it's possible she could have a dancer's grace. And if she used some potions to make her hair a bit shinier and her eyes brighter I'm sure she could get a much better boyfriend," said James honestly.

Another dramatic change after being cleared out was that James took more notice of people instead of their features or personality.

And he honestly believed Petunia could do better than that fat tub of lard who reminded him of Crabbe or Goyle.

Lily looked pensive. She could always ask Severus to send her some beauty potions for her sister, slip them into Petunia's drink and see if that couldn't change her sister's attitude towards magicals.

"You really think I could do better?" asked Petunia. It was painful to hear the hope in her voice.

"You remind me of my cousin Narcissa," said James, showing her a picture. One look and Petunia was willing to try potions. What James tactfully didn't say was that Petunia reminded him of Narcissa's less attractive qualities...that of being a self-obsesses snide bitch.

Micheal Evans would later thank James and give his full approval for him to date Lily... because of his words Petunia was slowly coming around to having a witch in the family.

The potions Severus sent to Lily and used by Petunia helped her snag a much nicer and open-minded boyfriend...who was the most popular boy in her school.

The bridge between the sisters was finally starting to mend ever since Dumbledore sent a clinical letter explaining why Petunia couldn't come with her sister, who she had been close to before Lily came back a total brat.

* * *

Gabriel was driving Severus up the wall. It had nothing to do with his quirks, the fact he had knowingly jumped into a spring that would change him into a girl every time he went swimming, or the fact that he was practicing the bagpipes to annoy McGonagall.

Gabriel had finally started noticing girls, and to his annoyance, the idiot had fallen for one of the Amazon girls who specialized in an obscure magic and the ice element.

Yue was someone who had been rescued from the rival Musk tribe when she was three, before they could insure she was turned into a bride for one of the men.

The Musk were the opposite of the Amazons, and the women were little more than baby-making machines. Where the Amazons protected the springs, it wasn't uncommon for the Musk to dump random animals into the Spring of Drowned Girl to get a new bride. The Amazons disliked them because they sometimes kidnapped girls from their tribe and forced them to marry.

They could barely tolerate each other when they ran into the other tribe.

She had pale silver hair, deep blue eyes, and she had an unusual tengu form that allowed her to fly on white wings.

And Gabriel had fallen for her hard when he saw her fight with a fan. The best part was that she was around 18 herself and unmarried.

"For Flamel's sake, if you're that interested in her, then why not challenge her to a friendly spar!"

In the Amazon village, the men didn't ask women out for a date like the outside...they asked for a friendly spar instead. If the man was able to either keep up with the woman, or managed to get her to submit, then he could ask her out. However if she beat him more than three times afterwords and wanted out, then he would have to back out gracefully.

It was a strange rule, but one Gabriel fully approved of. It gave women the upper hand considered how backwards some areas were in the world.

Gabriel finally decided to challenge Yue to a friendly sparring match. To Cologne's amusement, he won through trickery and managed to secure a date.

* * *

Sirius was having a crappy summer. It had started with losing Remus because of his actions, and it only got worse.

Finding out most of his hatred for Slytherin came from potions had been a nasty shock, and so had learning Narcissa was planning to marry a half-blood instead of Malfoy. She had given Lucius a black eye for calling her a slut because he found out she was going to pursue Severus instead of him.

To her surprise, Sirius wasn't far behind in hitting Lucius with one of their more vicious prank spells, as he had been within earshot at the time.

If someone like Narcissa, who was practically a more tame version of his mother was willing to marry a known half-blood, then clearly he needed to reconnect with his family.

He started with Narcissa and Bellatrix's sister, Andromeda.

"Mother actually _approved _of your marriage to a muggleborn?!" said Sirius incredulous.

"She said to thank Gabriel, because apparently he spoken to her about how selective inbreeding in dogs wasn't too dissimilar to what happens in humans. So now we're all going to get matched up with people who are either from outside Europe, are not related to us in any way from the past ten generations down, or are muggles," said Andromeda seriously. She was going to thank Gabriel for talking to Walpurga about that. She hadn't fancied getting kicked out of the family because she had fallen for a muggleborn.

Gabriel. Of course. Everything somehow or another came back to him. Sirius vaguely remembered Gabriel was related to James, but he had forgotten how since he had never cared.

Still, even Sirius could admit now that he was thinking with a clear head for the first time in years, most of the changes Gabriel had made to his life had been for the good.

For one thing he had given the Marauders (Sirius inwardly choked up, as the death of Remus still hit him hard) a rival in pranks. And he had helped in keeping one of his favorite cousins to stay in the family.

And if anyone had asked him if he would ever get along with someone like Narcissa five years ago, he would have laughed at them in their face. Instead they were holding the first civil conversation they had in years, all because Gabriel was slowly changing the point of view of those close to him.

* * *

Gabriel was risen by the village alarm bells. It seemed the Musk were making a play for some of the girls who were out in the fields and the spotters caught them heading in. He turned into Tails and headed out to meet the Musk head on.

Part of his apprenticeship with Severus included martial arts lessons, and since he had jumped in (with great glee) into the Spring of Drowned Girl Cologne could teach him some of the more advanced techniques without the Elders getting mad at her.

Gabriel had taken more to the more hand-to-hand fighting while Severus decided to lean more towards weapons. Remus was still on the basics, and considering he was only there as a guest it was unlikely he would get any further unless he was willing to come and stay longer.

The second Gabriel saw Yue in trouble, he dropped down and shifted into his secondary animagus form... a black dire wolf. His long, low howl set many who had dealt with wolf packs on the hunt during a full moon on edge.

And the way he took off at full blast was exactly like a wolf defending his territory. There was a reason why he had clicked so easily with Remus...they both understood what it was like to be a wolf on the prowl protecting it's home.

Gabriel's secondary animagus form, which he named Tsume mostly because of the coloring, tore through the Musk's leg like a shredder. He growled and pinned his ears back, showing he wasn't afraid to kill.

Yue got into a stance behind him, trusting Gabriel to watch her back. He shifted into human in time to break the newcomer's jaw and the two of them made short work of the Musk near them.

Severus was doing his part, raking the faces of any that tried to do any aerial moves and causing them to fall down in pain.

He also put the testing supplies that Gabriel used to see which Jusenkyo curse would be the most amusing to use on Dumbledore to good use by throwing water balloons at the Musk, turning them into random animals without warning. His aim was much better than Gabriel's, who could catch but couldn't throw worth a damn.

Eventually the raiders retreated, leaving Gabriel to tend to the wounded along with the others. Yue in particular had a nasty gash on her arm.

* * *

The best part of Gabriel's summer was when he and Yue went on a real date in Hong Kong's bird street. Once a year, the Amazon tribe Elders went to the capital to turn in their records of births, deaths, the number of people who fell into Jusenkyo and basically keep up-to-date with the Chinese Ministry. Gabriel and Severus went along, seeing as how they were foreigners who had come in under the apprenticeship clause and curious about the local areas. Yue was their guide.

Remus was with the local werewolf tribe learning more about plants that could accelerate the recovery process and how to grow them.

"Wow. This place is awesome!" said Gabriel, examining the birds with undisguised interest.

It had come as little surprise to everyone that Gabriel's natural chi element was wind, or that his alignment was moon-based. It certainly explained why he had fallen so hard for Yue, who was of wind and water, and radiated natural lunar magic.

"_You really like birds don't you?"_ said Yue in amusement.

"_You should see him when we were flying. Like a sugar-addict in a candy store," _said Severus snorting.

Gabriel went nuts over anything that flew. Severus had seen him drool over the latest broomstick before.

"_I heard the Li clan lives within Hong Kong. Their estate is most impressive,"_ offered Yue.

"_Maybe later,"_ said Gabriel.

Gabriel found a particularly nice hair piece that had a silver crescent moon with little pieces of sapphire left over from a cut gem that was reasonably priced, so he bought it. Severus got a few of his own hoping to court Narcissa with them when he got back.

A few hours later (after Gabriel ended up buying a new bird and a fancy post for her and Hedwig to share) they went to visit the Li mansion, mostly to see if it really was the most impressive house in Hong Kong.

"Wow," said Gabriel. He took a few pictures with his camera.

"Impressive," said Severus.

"Can I help you?" asked a rather floaty girl in yellow.

Gabriel could see three other girls in similar outfits with three other colors, it didn't take a genius to figure out she was an air element and the others were her sisters.

"_We only came to see if the Li clan truly did have the most magnificent house," _said Gabriel.

Her eyes widened in warm surprise.

"_You speak Chinese?"_

"_Some, but it's being augmented by a charm,"_

The girl then noticed Yue and spoke a warm greeting to her. Yue replied in kind, openly amused.

Gabriel had the weirdest charisma that allowed him to charm practically anyone he met. Including people who were rather cool towards others.

Yue watched the interaction between this girl, who was an air element with open amusement. Amazons were generally open to multi-partner relationships so long as the others could give the a good fight. They had to be, in a village where the women were the dominant roles and men were in scarce supply unless you wanted to join the Musk. And the Li clan was rather infamous for their skill in magic and fighting.

If Gabriel could charm one of the Li into this budding relationship they had going, she would be amused and not very surprised.


	17. Chapter 17

Severus was keeping the Blacks caught up with their apprenticeship, partially because they were his sponsors but mostly to show they were still alive because the region was rather remote. Hedwig, Gabriel's beloved pet owl, certainly didn't mind the exercise.

So naturally Walpurga was rather amused when she heard Gabriel had a chance with not one girl, but two. Both from rather prestigious pure blood clans. And because Amazon law allowed for multiple partners (provided that the outsider females knew martial arts or was willing to learn) the Black Matriarch was highly amused.

And the gifts Severus sent back for Narcissa were all in good taste and set her apart from the other pure blood girls. Now if only Gabriel would bring back an acceptable girl so she could show her off to the others!

* * *

It was during another raid by the Musk that Yue and Gabriel actually had their first kiss. Up till that point Gabriel kept his hands to himself...well outside of punches and kicks during a spar anyway... and was completely respectful of Yue's personal space.

So when a stray fighter collided into the two, causing their lips to finally meet, both broke apart blushing like mad.

What Gabriel was unaware of was that it was during this raid in his own timeline that Yue had been killed after she turned her back on the same Musk who she thought was knocked unconscious.

Gabriel slammed his foot into the man's head, knocking him out cold for real and stopping him from getting up. A quick full body bind made sure he never got up to bother them before the Amazons were through displaying what they felt about the Musk trying to raid their village again.

* * *

Cologne waited until Gabriel had a nice rest from the fight before she approached him.

"_You have progressed well as my apprentice, Gabriel Black. More than most men who have never used real martial arts have in a long time. And your interest in Yue have not gone unnoticed. How would you like to be an official part of the Amazon tribe through marriage?"_

"_I would be honored, but first I must finish my schooling so that I would have no distractions from her," _replied Gabriel honestly. He wanted to get his seventh year over with properly so he could finally come clean to his parents. He had been waiting for this moment for years, ever since his coloration change had finally wore off. He couldn't wait to see the gobsmacked look on James' face when he realized how thoroughly his own future son had pranked him.

"_A noble goal, and one we can use. Perhaps it is time we expand our horizons and give the others a chance explore the outside world. Are there any areas we could set up a shop for the young bloods to come visit?"_

"_There is a village outside the castle called Hogsmeade. I am sure that Chinese food would become a big hit, as there a sad lack of diversity in the food there,"_ replied Gabriel.

"_If you help us get through the red tape faster, you will earn a percentage. After all, soon you shall be part of the Amazon tribe in full," _said Cologne.

Gabriel grinned. He knew exactly how to get past the red tape. Good thing the Black and Potter name had just the right amount of clout (and gold) to keep the Ministry off their backs. All that would be left would be to buy the store they wanted.

* * *

"Smell that English air! Good to be home right guys?" asked Gabriel at the air port.

"Amen to that," muttered Remus groggily. He was leaning on Gabriel, as he had taken a sleeping potion and was therefor more or less half asleep still.

"So where do we go? The Black house is out because Sirius is still there, the Potter mansion is out because of James, and there's no way in hell we're going to stay in Diagon," said Severus.

Gabriel leveled a look at his friend. It was long past time for Severus to deal with his father, especially since he just turned seventeen a week ago.

"Spinner's End."

Severus' eyes turned cold.

"You don't mean..."

"If you don't face your demons now, when are you? Besides, you turned seventeen and so did I, so legally we're adults according to the Ministry. And if anyone asks, we can make it look like a Death Eater did it."

"How?"

"Long story short, a bunch of idiots got drunk at the Quidditch World cup and one of them was stupid enough to cast the Mark within hearing distance of me and my former friends," shrugged Gabriel.

"Or we could go muggle until the lists come out," mumbled Remus.

"Muggle? Meh, why not?" said Gabriel. It wasn't like they were going to run into Sirius or James at a muggle hotel, and it should be relatively easy to convince Severus to a shopping spree that close to London.

* * *

"Remind me again why I have to wear these glasses?" whined Remus the next morning.

Gabriel had dragged Remus out of bed for a hair cut and temporary dye that would wash out later, a quick color spell on the eyes and a cap to top it all off.

They were going shopping in muggle London later and there was no way he was going to jeopardize the lesson he had put into place by letting Remus be seen by the Marauders too early.

Besides, they all had growth spurts and were in need of new wardrobes anyway.

"Because if they see you like this, they'll only assume you look like Remus and forget about it later. Besides, I'm sick of seeing you with a needle and thread fixing your clothes," said Gabriel flatly.

Gabriel had caught Remus more than once doing a repair job on his shirts. And despite Remus' objections, Gabriel really didn't mind spending his money helping a friend.

By the time they left the department store, Remus felt horribly violated...so did Gabriel. The woman who was in the fitting area went a little wild helping them get a new wardrobe, especially when she saw the state of Remus' clothes...and to Severus' amusement Gabriel's torso. Gabriel's insistence on learning martial arts came back to bite him in the ass big time.

And since he now had a curse that turned him into a female, Gabriel jokingly got some female outfits as well. Which to his annoyance included bras. He would have continued using a breast wrap like he had in the Amazon village, but he was overruled by the matronly woman running the women's department.

He kept the girl clothes in a separate compartment under parseltongue password. He didn't want to explain the reasons why he had them to the others.

When the lists came out, Gabriel and Severus got the books for all three of them before they explained where they were staying to Orion who they ran into at Knockturn.

Soon the lesson would come full circle and only time would tell if Sirius and James learned anything from it.

At least Remus had gotten something out of it. He could now claim he had a natural wolf animagus form that he had trouble controlling, which would get the Ministry off his ass about being a werewolf. The fact he only had to get a little wet to set off the curse was something Gabriel had come with an rather amusing excuse.

Remus would claim he fell into the Jusenkyo spring of Drowned Wolf (which was true) but that it had locked his animagus form in a way that he could now only access it while wet. The fact that he no longer became a werewolf during the full moon was something he was very thrilled with. He couldn't wait to explain this rather ingenious solution to what many considered a curse to the wolf packs.

And best of all they could prove he was a werewolf anymore because the charm that was commonly used to test for it would only react to the Jusenkyo curse! The springs not only overpowered the bite, but it also scrambled the charm's results. And if he didn't turn wolf during the full moon, then the Ministry legally couldn't call him a 'dangerous animal' anymore.

* * *

"Gabriel!" said Fred with a grin.

"You'll never guess what we've been up to while you were gone!" said George.

"Animagus training?"

"Darn. Well it's no wolf or fox, but some of the muggleborns seems to get a kick out of 'em," said Fred.

"Let's see it then," said Gabriel.

One minute he was looking at Fred and George, the next he was looking at two very familiar characters from muggle cartoons.

"No way. No freaking way. You're Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck?!" said Gabriel laughing his ass off.

"That's who we are?" asked 'Bugs'.

"No one was willing to give us a hint as to who these two were," said 'Daffy'.

"Oh this is going to be fun..." said Gabriel. He was going to have a good laugh at the twins being corrupted by the old 'Looney Tunes' show.

"How so?"

"Let's just say you're going to get a kick out of this. I bet you both twenty galleons that your other forms are either a cat and a mouse, or possibly something else. I mean you're both dead ringers for Yosemite Sam, or possibly Marvin the Martian," said Gabriel cackling.

"So what's your plan for this year?"

"The List," said Gabriel.

Fred and George stopped cold, before an evil sounding cackle filled the air. Everyone who wasn't a prankster or happened to be sane shivered for no apparent reason...someone had just unleash pure chaos in the world.

* * *

Sirius watched James and Lily walk around one of the lesser magical areas for their first official date. Remus' death had only completed the one thing James had wanted most for seven whole years.

A date with Lily Evans where she wasn't angry with him. They had all be affected deeply by the loss of their werewolf friend, Sirius and James more than Peter for some reason. His mother confirmed he wasn't potioned like they had been, so his reaction to Remus being gone was quite worrying to say the least.

Watching the two of them, Sirius could believe things were finally getting better for their group. Though he honestly didn't know how he was going to enjoy his final year of Hogwarts without Remus.

The fact it was his fault Remus died was something that weighed heavily on Sirius' mind.

There were only two days before the train back to Hogwarts, and Sirius wasn't looking forward to his last year at all.

* * *

"Two more days. Time sure flies doesn't it?" asked Remus.

"For you maybe. I'm the one who has to help the Amazons get those permits for the new ramen shop at Hogsmeade."

"You're the idiot who agreed to help them in exchange for them bringing your girlfriend to England for you," said Severus.

"Maybe now I'll get some peace from the others," said Gabriel. He packed his things and headed to the Ministry in his female form.

As far as they knew, she was an Amazon applying for the shop with the assistance of the Black and Potter families.

Though while he was there, he did play a prank on Dumbledore who had come to see who was trying to set up a new shop in Hogsmeade across from his brother's bar.

Gabriel gave him laced lemon drops made with water from one of the cursed springs. It would curse anyone who ate it, but only if they ate several handfuls of them.

And with how much Dumbledore liked lemons drops, Gabriel knew he would get a permanent curse without having to be thrown in the spring.

He knew his father would get a real kick about what he had done, despite the bad summer he had forced him to go through as a pointed lesson about his behavior.

* * *

"Here we are Miss. Just sign here and you'll have everything you need...aside from insuring the shop is up to your specifications, to start up a business in Hogsmeade," said the Ministry official. Gabriel didn't know his name or care. S/he signed the papers and it was filed immediately once the contract confirmed magical blood.

"And there we go. You're the proud owner of a new... rah-men restaurant," said the official sounding out the odd word.

"Thank you," Gabriel said in accented English.

The minute she was out of the office she called Cologne on a two-way mirror.

"_The building's yours. If you hurry you might be able to make it in time for the first Hogsmeade weekend,"_ said Gabriel.

"_Good. Are you sure bringing Ginger was a wise decision? The English are rather prejudiced against half-breeds after all."_

"_Not to worry. There's a lonely half-giant who takes care of the forest who lives at the castle, and I'm sure the two of them will get along great."_

Hagrid needed something to make his life better and he had been alone for far too long because he lived in the castle year round. Ginger was one of the few half-giants in the Amazon tribe and because of her size she had never gotten a date once. She also loved animals, the bigger the better, which was why Gabriel had suggested they bring her along.

Tom might have ruined Hagrid's school life, but Gabriel was going to give him a second chance by getting him a girlfriend and hopefully a wife.

"_Well it's good for her to get out of the village every once in a while. Either way, Yue is eagerly awaiting to see you again."_

Gabriel smiled at that, having gone up the lift back to the street. Just because she had learned apparition before leaving for China didn't mean she _liked_ that method. Being sucked through a tube was not her idea of fun, so she preferred to walk.

Besides, it just seemed lazy to him to teleport directly to areas like the store when you could simply walk, and it sometimes made him nauseous.

Gabriel was halfway back to the hotel, still in female form when he felt someone grab his waist and pull him into an alley. Taking one look at the Dark Mark on the idiot's shoulder, he reacted accordingly.

He didn't scream, though he made damn sure this moron couldn't cry out and warn anyone in the area either as he beat the ever living shit out of him.

And when his buddies came to the fool's aid, he beat the crap out of them too. He didn't suffer fools, and rapists were the bottom of the barrel when it came to criminals.

"How was it?" asked Remus when he got back. Then he noted the blood on Gabriel's fist.

"What did you do?"

"Beat the shit out of some idiot Death Eaters. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to wash off the idiocy from my fist," said Gabriel flatly.


	18. Chapter 18

"So... who got head boy position?" asked Remus later. He had become the Gryffindor Prefect for the seventh years again.

"James did. And keep your voice down. As far as James knows you're Peter," said Gabriel with a hiss.

It was likely James and Sirius hadn't even cared who got the prefect position, or suspected Peter had it.

All Gabriel knew was that for the third straight year he was the Slytherin prefect.

Seeing James there, Gabriel withheld a snort. Of course, Dumbledore favored his old house the most, so why not insure James won the little competition between them?

Hypocritical asshole.

James clearly wasn't in the mood to make a speech, and neither was Lily. Fortunately Gabriel took over.

"Well, another year and for some of us it's our last. James, the Avengers officially challenge the Marauders to one last all out prank war, points and detentions be damned."

"Not interested," said James. Not without Remus. It wouldn't be the same.

Gabriel inwardly smiled. Good, the lesson had stuck. Time to play his card.

"You'll change your tune soon enough Potter. Somehow I get the feeling you thank me when you find out what I did," said Gabriel cryptically. Remus withheld a snort.

Still, it was nice to get confirmation that James and Sirius did value his friendship enough to know his death had impacted his friend this much.

When the meeting ended, Gabriel walked up and down the train helping the firsties out and welcoming them each personally to the school. It was more of a way to insure that they went to Slytherin than anything else, and to leave a good impression.

* * *

Sirius and James went to the Gryffindor table. It just wasn't the same without...

Both of them stopped cold when they saw a familiar tawny haired werewolf wearing a Gryffindor Prefect badge and watching them with something akin to amusement.

"James, am I seeing things?"

"Only if we both are," said James in shock.

"Remus?"

"I hope you two idiots learned your lesson. It was a pain in the ass to arrange that entire show to wake you up," said Remus flatly.

"We saw you killed!" said James in shock, not caring if anyone heard him.

"The aurors..."

"Were werewolves from the packs. It was all an elaborate hoax so you two fools would learn that being a bully has serious consequences. Gabriel made sure I was never harmed and he even helped to make a potion that would allow werewolves to have some degree of control during that time of the month. Speaking of werewolves... guess who no longer gets ill every month?" said Remus smirking.

"This was all an elaborate hoax?!" said James in shock, before that comment registered, "Wait, you mean..."

"We accidentally found a simple solution to the bite. A quick dip and you gain full control without having to fight for dominance. The only annoying thing is that it came with a water attracting curse," said Remus.

He had lost count the number of times Severus 'mysteriously' tripped and spill water on him and Gabriel.

"Either way, I'm glad you're alright Remus," said James honestly, hugging his friend.

"Me too mate. Sorry we were such arrogant prats," said Sirius in open relief.

"Oh, and by the way, don't be alarmed when Gabriel's prank goes off. He was serious about the prank war on the train."

"He was?" asked James. Now that he knew Remus was fine and alive, that prankster spark was back...but this time it was tempered by the lesson he had learned that summer.

"He wants to end this year with a bang... One last prank war before we graduate. Third years and below are off limits though."

"Fair enough."

* * *

Gabriel was glad to see his father and godfather finally taking a more mature route for once. It was about damn time they grew up. Seeing Remus tell them about his summer, explaining where he had been hiding the whole time, he felt a twinge of satisfaction that he had helped the Marauders grow closer than before...barring Peter.

The little rat looked seriously unhappy that Remus was not only alive, but back in the group again.

Finally, right before the desserts were going to be served, Gabriel activated his prank.

It was little more than an indoor rain spell, but it was the effects that would have everyone laughing.

Everyone but Dumbledore that is.

One minute the headmaster was about to take a bite out of his favorite dessert, the next he was on the floor...with hooves.

Gabriel grinned evilly as everyone yelped at the sudden shower before they realized that he was now a she.

"What the hell?!" shrieked Narcissa.

"This idiot took a running leap into the Spring of Drowned Girl and even tried to splash me with it in the process. As a result whenever he gets wet he turns into a female," said Severus, who had managed to avoid the deluge.

Remus shook off the water in his wolf form, to the shock of James and Sirius.

"Hey Potter! Hit him with some warm water to reverse it already!" yelled Gabriel.

James blinked before he cast a warm water charm on Remus. The tawny haired prefect shook off most of the water on the Ravenclaws.

"I still find that water attracting curse that came with the new form irritating," said Remus, sitting back down.

"Where is the headmaster Mr. Black?" demanded McGonagall.

She was answered by a sudden sound behind her. There with the longest beard she had ever seen, was a mountain goat. It even had Dumbledore's glasses.

"Dumbledore was the one naïve enough to take the cursed lemon drops. And since he clearly ate them all, it's as if he fell into the spring himself," said Gabriel amused.

Sirius let out a bark of laughter.

"Which spring did you hit him with?"

"Spring of Drowned Goat of course. Thought he might as well become like the animal he appears as with that beard of his!" smirked Gabriel.

Most of the Slytherins started laughing at that. There was little love lost between the Slytherin house and the headmaster, especially after what he pulled last year.

"How do we reverse this?" asked McGonagall, teeth grinding.

"Warm water reverses the effect...at least until he gets hit with cold again. Either way that curse is permanent," said Gabriel.

He then turned his wand on himself to reverse his own transformation.

All in all, a good way to start the chaos of the year.

* * *

"Okay Gabriel, explain now," said Narcissa imperiously.

"Which part?"

"The curse, the fact that the Marauders are suddenly all chummy again..." started Narcissa.

"Well the curse is fairly straightforward enough. There were a series of cursed springs near the village we were staying at called Jusenkyo. Remus fell into one, accidentally finding a solution to the werewolf curse and I did a cannonball into another. Then I made spiked lemon drops and gave them to Dumbledore while I was in cursed form insuring he got one too."

"Good prank by the way," said Bellatrix. She hadn't laughed that hard in a while.

"Oh it gets better. The Avengers are challenging the Marauders to an all out year-long prank war. And we're going to be having fun with this one guys," said Gabriel grinning.

"Show them The List," said Severus smirking.

Gabriel brandished an edited copy of The List (with capitals) from his time. It was something McGonagall had put together to remind the twins what they were and weren't allowed to do in Hogwarts, and they had given it to him after the Quidditch cup because of how down he had been. Needless to say Gabriel planned to do at least fifty of the items on The List before Christmas, and hundred of them before graduating.

Gabriel had already planned ahead and sent McGonagall two cases of really good scotch and enough migraine-relief potion to last two years so she was ready to deal with the prank war, along with a note that she would need it this year.

"Alright, so how the hell did you get the two idiots to accept Remus again after the way they were treating him last year?" demanded Nott.

"I can answer that. Gabriel made up this whole elaborate scenario where he made Sirius believe he had gotten Remus killed by aurors who were really werewolves in disguise. James and Sirius were having mixed reactions to the fact Remus had 'died' so they were put through a period of having their food and drink strictly monitored and we found out Sirius and James had been rather heavily potioned for the past five years at least. For one thing Sirius no longer thinks that Slytherin is the epitome of all things evil, and James finally managed to get Lily as a date," said Regulus.

"How the hell did he get werewolves to pretend to kill Remus?" asked Bellatrix.

"Because Remus was a werewolf."

"Was? How do you go from being a werewolf to not?" asked Lucius incredulous.

"Remus fell into the Spring of Drowned Wolf by accident while we were in China, and apparently Jusenkyo curses overpower that of the werewolf. In fact Remus has stated that his inner wolf seems perfectly content to remain in his cursed form rather than force a transformation once a month. We had him tested extensively after the first full moon when he got cursed, and the charm no longer says he's a werewolf."

"A werewolf in Hogwarts? The school governors would be appalled," said Lucius with a sneer.

"They would be if we hadn't perfected a potion that keeps them from going after humans. Haven't you been keeping up with the latest news Malfoy?" asked Gabriel smugly.

"Severus and Gabriel are the biggest thing in the healer community. They've found a way to give those cursed by the werewolf bite a way to stay in control during the full moon, so those bitten can stay out of cages. The Packs were thrilled when they found out that someone had made it and the gold has been pouring in," said Narcissa, her hand firmly on Severus' arm. He was blushing, but hiding it well.

With the news of the Wolfsbane potion, the way was clear for Narcissa to court Severus without losing face. Marrying to keep such talent in the family was an accepted reason for pure bloods to marry a half-blood like Severus.

Despite how Lucius felt about the matter.

"So, do we have any other questions?"

"I have one. Since we all know James is likely going to hand over the head boy position to you since he is Gryffindor's Quidditch captain this year, who's going to be the seventh year prefect this year?" asked Bellatrix.

"Severus of course. That way he gets to suffer the same late nights he's laughed at me for when I complain about not having enough sleep," said Gabriel immediately.

That got a good laugh from the others at Severus' poleaxed look. He liked his sleep, thank you very much and he hadn't thought Gabriel would give his prefect spot to him to get back for making fun of him.

* * *

_The next morning..._

Everyone was in the great hall when James Potter and Sirius Black walked over to the Slytherin table to where Gabriel was. The entire room went silent.

"Gabriel, I hereby relinquish the head boy position to you. I have no idea why I got it when I've never been a prefect, and there's no way I'm sacrificing valuable sleep that I could use to make plans to beat the snot out of Slytherin on the pitch since I'm the new Quidditch captain. I would also like to apologize for my behavior towards you and Severus Snape for the past several years," said James formally.

"Apology accepted," said Severus.

"And as I threatened, you get to be the Slytherin prefect this year Fury. Enjoy the late nights," said Gabriel evilly.

Severus glowered over his coffee.

"And I would like to apologize for nearly getting you killed last year. I have no excuse for that and I regret my actions."

"We knew you would try something like that, so Gabriel minimized the trauma it would cause on my end. So apology accepted," said Severus. He would never like Sirius, but he could at least tolerate the bastard now.

"Now that the boring stuff is out of the way, the Avengers hereby challenge the Marauders to one last prank war before graduation. The ones to complete most of The List wins," said Gabriel smirking.

He had a shortened version of The List, as he wanted to see if they could top the twins.

"The list?"

"No, like this... The List. It has to be capitalized," said Gabriel, handing over a short scroll in neat handwriting.

James took a look at some of the things on there, and once he realized what it was he was grinning now to.

"You're on Black."

"And if you manage to top us, I'll even tell you my full name."

"Do you have an embarrassing middle name or something?"

"Beat us at completing this and find out," countered Gabriel.

Gabriel got a head start on The List by discreetly hitting McGonagall with a hex that caused her to speak in classical music every time she tried to speak on the way out of Transfiguration. She turned on James because Gabriel had used his voice to do it made him look through The List to find that yes, that was one of the items on it had him swearing pretty good.

The war had begun.


	19. Chapter 19

James was having fun. Even if he was getting blamed for pranks he didn't pull on the Slytherins.

First it had been the Classic Music prank (which he got McGonagall off his back by proving he didn't do it by casting the 'priori incantatum' spell on his wand) then it had been the 'new password' prank which had Lucius Malfoy standing outside the Slytherin common room for two hours looking like an idiot because someone had switched the password to 'Long Live James Potter'.

James retaliated for that detention by charming the Great Hall doors to yell the famous line from _Lord of the Rings_. It took three hours before Flitwick got them to quit saying _"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" _whenever anyone tried to get in to eat.

Most of the older students who knew where the kitchens were (like Gabriel who had gotten a good laugh when he tried it first) shared food with the younger years, so they didn't starve.

Though Severus had quite a bit of fun with Narcissa's help when he wore a shirt saying 'Bigger than Black' to class one day and his girlfriend confirmed it loudly to the others in full view of Sirius. It took Sirius five minutes to get the joke before McGonagall found out.

* * *

"Bees! Bees! The bees are after me!" shouted Gabriel laughing at the rather annoyed group of Hufflepuff seventh year girls who were out for blood.

Gabriel had poked them one too many times with his spoon, which they quickly learned was enchanted to shrink their skirts each time they were poked.

Sirius did have to stare when he saw what he originally thought was a skirt on Gabriel though.

"DAMMIT GABRIEL! PUT ON SOME PANTS AND PUT THAT KILT AWAY!" shouted Severus covering his eyes.

"Why isn't she deducting points for wearing a skirt?" asked Sirius out loud.

Surprisingly McGonagall heard him.

"Far be it for me to tell a student they can't wear a kilt," she said evenly. And it was a kilt, not a skirt. She could tell the difference.

"A kilt?" said Sirius incredulous.

"Oh dear lord..." said Severus spotting what Gabriel was enlarging as he ran, not even out of breath. He handed Narcissa some ear plugs before Gabriel started playing bagpipes. McGonagall raised an eyebrow when she saw the pipes, but it quickly turned to understanding when she heard Gabriel play.

His technique was atrocious. She couldn't let this affront to her Scottish heritage continue.

She grabbed him by the ear and dragged him to her office for two hours.

"Well?" asked Severus.

Gabriel was a bit shell shocked.

"She said that she would ignore the minor pranks so long as I agree to take lessons on how to play the pipes during our shared free time on the weekends. Apparently the fact that one of her students was willing to pay homage to her heritage amused her... that and she knew we only had one year left before we were no longer her problem," said Gabriel.

Actually she said that she had decided to bow out gracefully in trying to keep them in line, since they would soon be out of her hair forever. Gabriel didn't have the heart to tell her that she would soon have to deal with the Weasly twins in a little over a decade.

Besides, annoying people with the bagpipes was a fun hobby in his opinion, and he did like McGonagall as a teacher, despite the headaches he gave her.

Plus it gave him all the excuse he needed to wear a kilt even to class. They couldn't complain with McGonagall on the staff after all, and if he were hit with water it wouldn't look nearly as strange.

And he was hit with water frequently. He went an entire week as a girl just to prove it didn't really bother him.

"Hogsmeade weekend is up tomorrow. You going?"

"Yue has a day off, so of course I'm going!"

The unattached pureblood girls had been most put out that Gabriel had found a girlfriend while in China. However when Severus told them about the Amazon's mistress laws, that only brought back the most rabid of Gabriel's fans.

Lily found their village customs fascinating, and was currently asking Cologne if it were possible for her to train with the girls once she graduated. She found the magical communities overdependent attitude on wands frustrating.

So far Cologne had done more to get rid of Gabriel's fan club than his girlfriend/fiancee had. Two minutes with the old crone, and they were more interested in easier to snag boys.

* * *

Yue grinned when she heard Gabriel walk in, and took vindictive pleasure in accepting a quick kiss on the cheek from her fiancee.

Just because the Kiss of Marriage wasn't often used didn't mean it was out of practice. Gabriel had beaten her fair and square and because he was an outsider she was able to use that as an excuse to claim him.

Hearing the groan of disappointment from his fan club, she smirked.

Those stupid girls didn't have a chance of taking advantage of the Heaven and Earth solution. Only one female she had met did, and her family was still unsure if they wanted to use it.

Gabriel took her on a nice tour of the village (avoiding Madam Puddlefoot's because the last thing he wanted out of a partner was for them to be _that_ girly) before they ended up in a bookstore.

Yue was still having trouble with her English, but the comics Gabriel loved so much had been helping more than she would have thought.

Gabriel was already selling some spelled comics that would replace the words after you had already read it with another language of your choice.

He had used it to learn Chinese, Japanese and a little Spanish.

* * *

"MR. BLACK! MR. POTTER! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" shouted Dumbledore.

"Quidditch. Considering we're all sick and tired of playing in the rain we figured the Great Hall was a good second choice," said Gabriel.

Actually they were crossing off another item on The List.

So far they had managed to knock off twenty of the items before the second month was out.

Most of the teachers had figured out that this was the two groups last hurrah before graduating. Which was the only reason they weren't in detention until hell froze over.

It was easier to let them get it over with and see them gone for good than to try and stop it.

Though they did have to rescue Gabriel, James, Sirius and Remus from the rather large horde of females who were eager to get a little payback when all four of them waltzed into the Great Hall one morning without a stitch on.

Gabriel immediately checked off 'I will not go to class skyclad' off both their lists.

"Hey Remus. This is for you and this is for Sirius," said Gabriel with a straight face in full view of the Marauders.

Remus and Sirius opened the packages and grimaced. It was a pair of flea collars meant for large dogs. James busted out laughing when he saw them.

"Hey guys, I have a question for you," asked Frank, who was on Gabriel's team to out-do the Marauders.

"What?" asked James, getting his breath back.

"How do you keep a Gryffindor in suspense?"

"I don't know, how?" asked James, eagerly awaiting the answer.

"Good question Frank!" said Gabriel holding back a snicker. Several of the Avengers took up the 'question' before Sirius finally broke and asked how they kept the lion house in suspense.

That was all it took for the Avengers to start laughing before Gabriel crossed off two lines on his list. James cottoned on first.

"Oh har har," said James pouting. Though he had to admit, it was pretty funny if you were on the other end.

"You guys up for the prank with the lower years?"

"You mean that muggle fad called a flash mob?" asked James.

Gabriel had explained the concept, and the Marauders thought it was harmless enough to do.

McGonagall wouldn't like it though.

* * *

It started innocently enough. Every boy in the great hall below fifth year stood up on the table and began to sing. It took the female teachers less than a minute to realize _what_ they were singing before they quickly tried to hex everyone quiet.

That took them fifteen minutes to get the boys to stop singing "A Wizard's staff has a knob at the end". And like Gabriel predicted, McGonagall was _not_ amused.

Thankfully the boys had been sworn to secrecy on which group convinced them to sing that particular song.

They all got detention just the same though.

* * *

Gabriel was snickering with his girlfriend as they were outside in Hogsmeade on a weekend selling what they claimed to be 'Gryffindor Courage'.

It took the Gryffindors one sip to figure out he was selling smaller bottles of fire whiskey under a different name before one of the teachers was called in.

Luckily for Gabriel, the Gryffindors thought it hilarious (a scarce few thought it rather insulting) and had bought the entire stock before McGonagall found out about the stall and went to inspect what he was selling.

It wasn't until nearly half of her house woke up after the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw with hang overs and reeking of the drink that she found out they had gotten it in Hogsmeade. The only reason Gabriel got away with it was because she couldn't prove James and Sirius hadn't brought it in and not from Gabriel.

* * *

Flitwick had a headache. And he blamed the two prankster groups.

Someone had posted a sign on the entrances to the library stating that it was closed for an indefinite period of time, and while that made Madam Pince pleased since it meant she wouldn't have to track down her precious books, it annoyed his ravens greatly. It had taken them two _hours_ just to find a way to break the enchantment on the doors to let the students in.

To top it all off, someone had convinced the first years to sing the song that never ended.

It had taken the teachers five cauldrons of migraine relievers before they could convince them to _stop_.

So yes, his day and possibly his week was now shot. Thank god Christmas was around the corner.

* * *

James took one look at the great hall and burst out laughing.

The first and second years were all hanging from the ceiling in fluffy angel outfits...and what were clearly paint balls. James knew instinctively that Gabriel had given them orders to shoot anyone from a rival house at least once if they entered the hall. McGonagall was running ragged trying to get them down, but they certainly weren't eager to do so since they had already shot Dumbledore repeatedly.

As Gabriel later stated to an unamused Scotswoman, she should be glad he had distracted Peeves before he learned about paintballs. She started hexing him and didn't stop until he escaped into his common room, to the laughter of the other students.

* * *

Sirius was giggling like a madman as James tried and failed to figure out where the stairs were. He kept bumping into the railing, to the amusement of his girlfriend who found it too amusing to watch the show to fix his glasses. Why it had never occurred to him to clean them after Sirius had used washable paint to turn them black, she had no idea.

"What... Number 208?" asked Remus when he saw the sight. Sirius nodded, snickering the entire time.

"So who's going to be the one stupid enough to do number two-hundred and seven?" asked Lily. She had been brought in the challenge by James to replace Peter, seeing as how the mousy lion had been rather unreasonable since finding out Remus wasn't really dead.

"I'll get James to do it later at lunch. Should be easy to bribe him," shrugged Sirius.

"BLACK! POTTER!" shouted a very enraged Lucius Malfoy. It didn't take a genius to figure out why he was so pissed...someone had dyed his hair the exact same shade as Lily's, likely so they could claim that he was her long lost brother.

What Malfoy didn't know was that Gabriel had a time turner, one he abused to pull off the prank and still have an alibi.

James fully intended to do 293 through 295 later that week.

"Why is he even still at the school? Didn't he have some boring pure blood party to go to?" asked Lily.

It was Christmas break, and Gabriel had already crossed off five of the Christmas related things on the List. The first years found it amusing, even if the teachers did not.

As Gabriel told his amused girlfriend, sometimes having a reputation as being a trustworthy adult had it's perks...the firsties didn't think to question anything he told them.

The last time he had gotten called up to McGonagall, the first words out of his mouth were "I have it on good authority that you have no evidence."

She had not been amused.

Later during lunch, James bravely walked up to the Ravenclaw table and told them that they were essentially useless because the smartest student was in his house.

Lily had liked the thought, but the Ravenclaws (those that stayed) were still a bit sore over the library incident, as it was called.

It took Madam Pomphrey four hours to undo half the hexes that had been cast enough for him to leave the Hospital wing.

* * *

James and Sirius were not the least bit amused when they had to deal with McGonagall in full rant mode because the firsties said they heard their voices claiming that 'they were next' after half the Slytherin crop were sent to the Hospital Wing after hitting themselves with a full body bind charm.

They still had no idea who kept doing that. Or who had mimicked James' voice enough that McGonagall had hexed him for someone calling her McGoogles.

If Sirius ever found out who used his voice to call her 'kitten' he was going to punch them. Hard.


End file.
